


zwei Dumme, ein Gedanke

by joouheika



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Crossdressing, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Manga Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-16 18:46:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 30,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4636185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joouheika/pseuds/joouheika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two halves make a whole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. two idiots,

Eren doesn’t often smile.

Is what Levi had been thinking about.

Before Hanji had appeared. Waving around this camera she’d found while cleaning with Eren. Amazed that the government hadn’t confiscated it, amazed that it didn’t need to be set on a stand to function like all the cameras of present. Amazed it still could take pictures. Too fucking amazed is what Levi thinks, not one to appreciate being interrupted from anything. Eren especially.

And then.

Hanji had decided for some reason to use him as its test subject.

Levi had blinked the bright light of the flash away, before mounting and taking off on his horse. Hanji’s chatter miles behind him along with her disappointment over his lack of interest and how he shouldn’t push her while she was carrying such a thing ya know? It was pretty delicate! He’d told her to go take a bath, the dust in all her hair was making him choke.

With Hanji’s interruption (he blames) he’d forgotten a few things back at HQ, meaning he’ll have to come back again into town tomorrow (a pain). He’s already irritated. Eren had spent near the whole day with Hanji so far, helping her clean, and had been just about to prepare lunch when Levi had left. Eren had asked him if he would stay for lunch? His brow furrowed, his mouth in a displeased frown that the Corporal would not have a meal before heading out. Levi had wanted to stay, but if he put off buying the supplies (and his forgotten duty) anymore it’d be a pain for not only himself, but Eren too. He’d be back for dinner he’d promised… he’s kicking himself for forgetting the task he’d been given (by Erwin). He could have stayed for lunch. Sat in the warm sunlight with the others, eating what Eren had prepared-

Eren prepares most of their meals. Levi trusts him to prepare the food in a manner that won’t make his stomach hurl, given Eren’s cleaning skills have been brought to par with his. Aside from that- Eren helps him in many things- maintaining their gear, assisting in as much of the paperwork he can, all while keeping tidy Levi’s office, making him tea when he can barely keep his eyes open, and most recently has been repairing his clothes.

They’d been doing the laundry together as it’s typically done when Eren had noticed, how battered and worn, the tears and the stains that would not come out from wash after wash (Levi on the verge of throwing them out) on some of the articles of clothing- Levi’s day wear, stolen hand me downs. Not bothering to buy his own clothes considering the expense, and considering it was hard to find anything that fits his bulk _and_ stature. Clothes that fit either too long, clothes that reached his wrists and ankles too tight. Erwin had been on his case on getting a tailor. But Levi had figured so long as his uniform was his size, and he didn’t wear anything else from it often, that there was really no need. It’d just be a waste, and tea ain’t cheap.

But there is need now, Erwin once again, insisting (probably annoyed that it was from he Levi liked to pinch clothes from the most, being the one closest and therefore most convenient) that Levi either get new clothes or see that the ones he had become a better fit. A better look. They are to attend this annual ball they typically go to soon. Compromised of lower nobility, politicians and successful business folk. Others from different divisions of the military would be there too. All of them vying to win some fuck over to help with their funding. That’s what this was really about. Dress to impress. 

Being that is the situation, and he must go, being Erwin’s bodyguard, and the ‘well-known’ humanity’s strongest soldier. He does not have a choice on this. He has been so ordered.

Levi had decided then to let Eren patch up his clothes. It is rare to him that Eren, even when he has the confidence, speaks much with it. To hear him talk of how he’s certain he can do something about Levi’s worn clothing, given the practice he’s had with his mother and Mikasa at needlework, and has patched up his own clothes over the years (see? showing off his shirt)- Eren is sure he will get the job done. He’d promised. Levi could not refuse him and so had allowed it. He hadn’t been expecting the neat job that’d returned, finding it satisfactory he’d set Eren on the task of fixing up the rest of his small and stolen wardrobe. Even allowing Eren to repair certain places on his uniform he’d neglected; they weren’t obvious and the clothing had still been functional. But it’s nice to have it done and bettered.

Given Eren’s work, Levi assigns him another task. To create from one of his suits, a better fitting, more classy look, that Erwin will be satisfied with and so leave him the fuck alone. He tells Eren about the ball, its expectations, his expectations. And Eren had accepted, though had he refused, insisting himself not good enough as he does to many things. Levi would have ordered it of him anyway. Nobody else will do. Eren’s hands as he bumps against Levi’s torso or stomach as he takes the measurements and pins up or back, certain areas of the clothes, his crouching figure before Levi, his head bent forward, pins in his mouth, measuring tape at hand. His thoughtful, contemplating look as he drags his gaze over and across Levi’s body- Levi will only allow Eren this. Eren will be sure to create him an outfit befitting of the occasion… and his difficult, unconventional built.

To do that Eren needs more material though, some items on a list he’s requested: much more fabric, lace or buttons that Levi doesn’t question and buys. Knowing Eren doesn’t have much to work with from the start. He’s told himself he can double steep the tea a couple times, not minding the slight expense (it’d been worse to buy all new from a certified tailor or some shit)… all for one thing. Noticing the amount of thread asked for it quite much… Levi can’t help find it peculiar that one thing.

What Eren oft did, aside a good job.

Was it a signature?

A whim?

Why Eren needed all that thread.

On the lapels of all Levi’s coats, inside the pockets- is a design, a pattern. Varying in shapes and sizes, ordinate and intricate, bright or dark- the colours. Depending on the article of clothing. It’s not noticeable a thing from the outside, you can only see it, feel it, as the wearer- but even then it’s not an easy feat- to detect it. As if Eren had purposely tried to hide them, though that can’t be possible and what for? Levi doesn’t ask about it.

Levi will ask… another day. Eren is concentrated on finishing his outfit for the ball. Levi doesn’t want his questioning to put Eren on edge. No doubt Eren will apologise right away before telling him what it is (probably just for fun, practice to pass the time), stuttering, trembling, shy and embarrassed about it- Levi shudders thinking about the expression Eren will make.

In town, he’s just about made all the purchases he can make. Erwin’s task he’d overlooked he will have to complete tomorrow- when he passes by a fruit stall. The colours of red apples, bright oranges, yellow pears and pink peaches reminding him of the embroidery in the lapel of this coat he’s wearing. Eren had gone through the trouble of resizing it for him as well. 

Levi leans over, hovering about the fruit wondering if he should bring Eren something back as a gift. Eren who he wakes in the morning, cooks him meals, cleans with him, has been repairing his clothes, asking him before he turns in for the night if he’s getting enough sleep himself, reminding him where he’d left certain documents, that one of the tea tins is empty, follows his every step, listens to his words carefully- his Eren, whom many have been teasing as of late. He remembers after one dinner of many, all of them having a drink- Moblit had been listening in on a conversation he’d been having with Hanji. Hanji bringing up Eren. Asking how he’s faring with the workload Levi expects of him. How Levi seems harder on him than anyone else… Moblit had leaned over and said rather loudly, in jest- that if Eren really does all those things for Corporal Levi then it’s almost like Eren is Corporal Levi’s-

“Your wife is very talented.”

Levi glances up, almost sharp but not quite invested to be so, at who is speaking.

The fruit vendor, an old woman, hobbled and grey, who’s no doubt as short or shorter than he. Standing on a box or two to look over her heaping wares.

She points at his jacket. Her squinting eyes suggest she cannot see well. Despite that-

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen such work. Not many girls are into it nowadays.”

Levi looks down, indeed she is pointing at the peekings of embroidery that can be seen.

“Oh? You know what this is, granny?”

The old woman nods.

“Aye. Where is your wife from? The mountains or the outermost walls? Those are seals of protection and wishes for good health. The only god people want to talk about is the god of the walls but those are runes from a time when only the goddesses gave us blessings.”

The old woman clears at her throat, before continuing.

“Your wife must care about you very much to go to the trouble. In my mother’s time and the time of her mother it was the most usual thing.”

Levi looks down at the embroidery. Had the old woman mistaken Eren’s creativity for an old tradition or- contemplating it further, Eren is from Wall Maria- the Shiganshina District- it is closer to the outside than some of the other districts.

Then for his sake Eren had-

Levi looks back to the old woman.

It’s not good enough a gift but.

Levi points to the fruit available, holding up two fingers on his other hand in indication.

“Two of each.”

\--

Levi had not made it in time for dinner. 

Everyone done with the clean up too, then finishing up their work or preparing for bed when Levi is able to sit down. A napkin he sets over his lap as Eren places his heaping serving of red from tomato paste pasta, chopped and roasted onions and peppers, what might be ground meat and chunks of cheese strewn about the noodles, luckily no mushrooms. Levi gives Eren the materials he bought, along with the fruit (a hefty basket). Telling him to eat whatever he likes.

Levi eats measured and slowly, as Eren thanks him and pardons himself, leaving to wash a fruit. Eren returns to sit before him, one of the fruits in hand. Distressed when the juice of it- a pear he’s eating- gets over his mouth and fingers. Licking at the juice that has yet to spill over his cupping fingers, determined to not make any more of a mess than he already has. In front of the Corporal too… Levi tries not to watch so obviously.

After his meal and Eren’s snack, both thoroughly wash up, before going to Levi’s room- it is the dead of the night. Levi expressing some concern that Eren is working on his clothes under such dim light. Something Eren has gotten after him about often, when he’s read too many papers and lost track of time.

Eren agrees with him, asking if it will be alright if they continue another day, or will that set back the schedule too much?

Levi figures if it does, Eren will just have to work harder. Seeing Eren’s frown, concerned on thinking that even with his hard work the job will not be done in time- 

Levi assures him.

“Eren. We’re fucked for time even in something like this. If you’re so worried, accompany me tomorrow for the rest of the errands into town, that way we can resume the sewing right away. How’s that?”

Eren does not object.

\--

What Levi had forgotten.

Erwin had asked of him when he next went into town- for the sake of the upcoming event- to take his pocket watch to be fixed at this jewelry shop that did that sorta thing. Levi had forgotten the watch yesterday, in a hurry to leave and not deal with Hanji. And so with haste he was come again into town today.

That’s not only it.

He’s brought Eren. Hoping to find something better suited as a gift for him, not just some fruit. Levi wants Eren to have something more lasting… like the embroidery on his clothes.

They enter into the dark shop requested, the lights only on the cases of the various necklaces, bracelets, rings- silver and gold, jeweled or not, an assortment of watches and even pocket knives (none sharp enough for his tastes) for sale. Eren looks over the items in the cases, the hood drawn over his head as instructed by Levi. Given it is not often he gets to come into town. They’re already rather noticeable, in uniform (unlike how Levi was yesterday, having come alone). A measure to ensure the pocket watch will be fixed quickly. As Levi speaks with one of the shop keepers, another greets Eren, asking what he’s looking for. But Eren only shakes his head, refraining from speaking, trying to avoid interaction- as Corporal Levi had also instructed him.

Levi discusses what time the pocket watch will be picked up, how soon that can be tomorrow… when that is done- he glances with a shift of his eyes not a turn of his head, at Eren who hovers about… what looks from this distance to be a case of pocket watches. Eren is leaning rather close. His eyes alight in interest and fascination. Levi hadn’t expected Eren to want something from here. He does not look to see what it is Eren is looking at. 

Levi turns to look at Eren.

Eren snapping to attention, turning to him.

Levi tells him they’re leaving. 

The bell to the shop ringing once, twice as he leaves and Eren hurries to follow him. Levi can hear his rushed steps behind him, desperate to catch up with him even within this short distance.

That night Eren tries to finish his outfit once again, but the night has come too soon, and Levi says they’ll pick off where they left another time.

\--

The next day, Levi returns to the shop to pick up Erwin’s pocket watch.

Eren had seen Levi off before going over to his friends, some chores needed to be done. Levi had glanced back from afar, to have one more look at him before he left. Eren’s tense expression when he’d asked Corporal Levi to return safely… completely vanished. Levi saw. When he isn’t around- light hearted and teasing is the curve of Eren’s lips, he’d laughed at some joke, some comment. A hand to his mouth, drawn back down to his side as Hanji approached him, that camera in hand. They’d talked about something enthused, at length. Levi had hurried away then. Eren’s expression too bright. Blinding him as he enters the dark-

Back at the jewelry shop.

Levi waits for the shop keeper to retrieve Erwin’s pocket watch. He moves over to the case that Eren had been looking into. Wondering what it was Eren had been looking at. He sees it, what it must have been.

The other shop keeper, an old man, grey and tall walks over to the case he’s looking into.

“You’re the soldier from yesterday, the other soldier you were with had been looking here too. I take it it’s these lockets that’s caught your eye, familiar aren’t they?”

Darken gold, two lockets within the glass, upon one- a wing of white and on the other a wing of black. Should you look at them, and cross them, without a doubt it is their emblem.

The Wings of Freedom.

The old man goes on to explain.

“My grandson used to be a soldier like you. He made those lockets before he took off to join the Survey Corps. He made much of what’s left in this store. My son, his father runs a more successful shop in Wall Sina. He opened it when he learnt his son wouldn’t be taking over this shop.”

Levi looks up from the lockets, to the old man who continues.

“My grandson died on an expedition outside the walls. My son hasn’t forgiven the Survey Corps ever since for it, but even so he couldn’t bring himself to throw away what his son made. So he’s separated himself far from it.”

It seems a little extreme, but people have been stupider, and more emotional over smaller things. If he’s being told this tale to make a sale, the tactic ain’t half bad. Levi can hear it however- sincerity. After hearing Eren speak for so long, it’s hard to deny he can hear it. The story he has been told, probably, is not false.

The shop keeper who’d been the one to speak with Levi on the first visit, is an assistant seller hired by this old man, the owner, it appears. He soon presents the tuned and polished pocket watch to Levi. Levi nods.

Taking out his wallet.

He points to the case with the lockets. 

“This too.”

\--

For all the jokes being made.

Eren is not his wife.

Eren is not his lover.

They are not dating.

Eren merely helps him out because he is his superior officer, and Levi had been given the duty to look after him. They are nothing more than that. They are soldiers. They share a common goal. They desire the realisation of a certain ambition. They both carry in their hearts the same ideal.

To kill every single titan.

To free themselves from this cage.

Eren respects him and that is all.

Levi reminds himself of this fact, over and over.

When he wakes Eren in the morning, removing the shackles he’d slept in. Resisting the temptation to draw his fingers over Eren’s steadily healing but sore wrists, resisting his need to bend over and press his mouth over Eren’s parted lips as he blinks sleep away. Levi must remind himself they are nothing more than comrades, as he waits for Eren to finish changing, his back turned so he doesn’t see anything. Only torturously hearing every sigh, every movement of clothing removed and clothing worn.

He must not forget.

As Eren follows him up the steps, to his office, to the stables, to the kitchen or henceforth. By his side throughout most of the day, unless he is stolen away by another. Levi can’t stand that. Eren is his… responsibility, so Eren should remain by him. Levi hates going out into town, where he shouldn’t bring Eren. It’s too dangerous, with unknown eyes that look upon him- Levi can’t bear that either.

Levi must do his duty.

They are in his room and Eren is working on that outfit for the ball. A few more touches he says, and then it will be complete for when Levi must leave with Commander Erwin to attend the event which is only a few more days away.

Levi doesn’t want to go.

He will have to leave Eren behind.

He remembers the sound of Eren’s footsteps behind his.

It will be the longest time since their meeting that Levi will be apart from Eren. Someone else will tuck Eren in at night, someone else will wake him in the morning, someone else will spend the day with him.

Eren is smoothing at what he thinks might be wrinkles at the front of his shirt, making sure it is not since it’ll complicate his sewing. At this distance Levi can smell the soap Eren used to wash his hair, his face, his skin. When Eren feels Levi shudder-

“Are you cold sir? I did not think the room very much so, perhaps the material is too thin for you?”

“That may be the case.”

Levi answers.

Eren resumes his work, thoughtful.

He bends down to sit on his knees, fretting over the length of the trousers for the nth time. Feeling at the fabric wondering if it is too thin, though it’s not yet winter and barely autumn. His head is lowered, the top of his head brushes barely by Levi’s curled fingers.

Levi wants to bury his fingers in Eren’s soft hair, and grip it again.

One of the reasons they’d have to stop abruptly so many times. Levi blamed the dim light, but it was because of this- Eren would be too close, too tempting. And Levi would have an erection like he does now. Not sure if he could keep it from Eren’s notice, given what Eren has to do; Levi would order the work to be done a different night. A different time. He should again. Before he’s caught.

He doesn’t. As Eren looks him over, rising- eyes giving no indication other than focusing on his job- 

“How is it? Is it ready yet?”

Eren looks at him attentively, his face.

“…there’s still… a little more sir. I can have it done by tomorrow morning if you prefer it be done as soon as possible.”

“Understood.”

Levi starts to undress. Eren doesn’t need him to be wearing the clothes anymore to finish.

Eren turns around, abruptly, on seeing Levi has started to change. The back of his neck looks red and hot like his ears. Levi folds the clothes away neatly, pulling on some sweatpants- he doesn’t bother with a shirt. Knowing Eren will remain as he is if Levi does not put one on. He goes to where he’s hung up the coat of his uniform, reaching into the pocket-

With Eren still turned around as he is.

Eren jumps on feeling the cold metal, Levi’s hands by his neck as he does the clasp.

Eren looks down at what lies heavy against his chest. Unlike his father’s key had, when he’d still worn it. The key is being safe kept by Commander Erwin. Eren touches at it- what Levi has given him-

“It’s a locket. Sorry if you thought it was a watch.”

Levi figured Eren had not only liked the locket for its markings but also because he’d mentioned, when Levi had told him what they needed to do in town- that it was very sophisticated of Commander Erwin and… manly to have a pocket watch. Something about how his father had carried one too. Did Corporal Levi carry one as well? So Levi figured Eren would have liked a pocket watch, but it’d been the locket he’d been looking at.

When Eren doesn’t speak.

“Hey, Eren. Cat got your tongue? Why the fuck ain’t you saying anything? You don’t like it so much after all do ya. Then, I can take it back.”

Levi had been careful not to touch Eren’s neck as he’d placed the chain around it. He does not bother this time. Skimming his fingers over the sides of it, Eren’s shoulders, to draw them back at the clasp. Eren jumping under his touch. Pulling away, whirling around. Horrified that Levi was trying to take the locket from him? Or had touched him? Eren’s eyes are wide and nervous.

“No!”

He’s clutching the locket to him.

“That’s- that’s not- please forgive my rudeness Corporal Levi. I… you must find it stupid of me… yes, I was too happy to speak. I like this gift very much! But are you sure? Such a thing… it wasn’t cheap was it?”

“It wasn’t,” Levi tells him plainly, “You’ve worked hard Eren.”

Eren seems taken aback by Levi’s words before biting at his lower lip, holding the locket in his hand. Looking at it.

Levi continues.

“It’s yours then. I won’t take it back, Eren. You can put whatever you like in it.”

Eren looks back up to him.

It feels like Levi’s heart has shot up into his throat.

“Thank you very much, Corporal Levi!”

Smiling.

Eren is-

It’s that smile that Eren doesn’t allow him to see, a smile akin to one he might have when he’s talking with his friends. When someone of his squad might make a joke. Levi has even seen Eren smile at Commander Erwin before like this- Erwin praising Eren for something or asking of him something- something something something- that Levi doesn’t have. That Levi doesn’t get. That Levi can’t. It won’t matter. It hadn’t been Commander Erwin who’d stained his boots with Eren’s blood. Eren is always worried and apprehensive near him. Afraid to displease him. Always trying his best, seriously, diligently. To see such a warm and soft expression on Eren’s face, all for him, just for him-

Levi hopes Eren doesn’t notice it.

How much harder his dick has become, tenting up higher at the front of his pants.

Levi wants to kiss Eren.

Then shove him against his bed.

Eren clutching at his bed sheets, the locket set on the mattress heavily like Eren’s hands would be, gripping. Levi wants to pull off Eren’s clothes, kiss the back of his neck and enter him. He wants to grip Eren’s wide hips and fuck him. He wants Eren moaning and crying out for him as he fills him. Eren begging for Levi to turn him around- wants Eren to hold him- to kiss him-

Eren’s mouth is parted in concern as Levi doesn’t say anything, taking more time than even Eren had to respond. It closes as Eren swallows, readying himself to speak, to ask. That smile no more, only a familiar, apprehensive frown.

But Levi turns back around, moving away, slowly, pulling a shirt over his head, more clothes. He’s hoping not to run into anyone else at this hour.

He returns to Eren’s side. Draws an arm across Eren’s shoulders, pulling Eren close to him-

“Let’s go. You can come back and finish in the morning.”

\--

Levi had been fortunate not to run into anyone when returning Eren to bed.

He’s just got out from a (cold) shower, hair barely toweled dry, an unusual thing for him to not use his own private bathroom but the public one (it’d been an emergency) instead. It appears nobody is out this late hour.

Then there’s Hanji.

Waving an envelope in front of his face.

Levi crinkles his nose, she smells like chemicals which is probably better than dirt and sweat and tears and sometimes blood.

“I have a present for you! Levi! Some pictures you are dying to see!”

Levi turns on heel without so much a glance to her or the envelope she’d shoved in his face, but not without snatching the envelope first.

She’s still speaking, chipper as ever.

“I know you’ll be needing these soon!”

His glare more foul than any profanity he typically spews at her when irritated, which is a lot.

“You’re welcome!”

Is what Hanji calls out to him as he makes his way back to his room. Shutting the door heavily, locking it. Did Hanji really bother to develop those pictures she took of him being blinded? Levi supposes he will just burn them or toss them later, wanting to go to bed already, nerves on edge given at any moment in the shower he’d thought someone might walk in. He throws the envelope in the drawer of his nightstand and goes the fuck to sleep.

\--

Hanji bothers him about the photos only once. Asking if he enjoyed them, but probably not, from his dark circles… his usually tense shoulders. What that’s supposed to mean- Levi doesn’t know.

A few more days pass since then… it’s almost time for the stupid no titans to be killed yet outing.

His outfit complete and hanging up, ready for the shitty ass ball he has to attend tomorrow. Eren had done his best. Levi inspects for the finishing touches Eren had insisted on. Levi peers into the lapel of the jacket. Inside the pocket, better hidden than the others- it’s there. More embroidery. It hadn’t been there before, when Eren had been working on the outfit before Levi’s eyes. Levi had allowed Eren to take the suit to work on in the dungeon, by himself the previous night. Knowing it’d not get done (his own fault, not Eren’s) otherwise.

Levi has already had a bath but supposes another in the morning won’t hurt, given he’s going to be holed up in a carriage for some shit fucked hours. He’d put Eren to bed long ago, noting that Eren keeps wearing the locket he’d given him but has it tucked under his shirt. Levi has to resist pulling it out from under Eren’s shirt, especially in public, when it’s not just the two of them. If he did that Eren would certainly be confused. Levi wonders if while he’s gone Eren will take it off, if Eren is only wearing the locket in consideration of him- he grits his teeth.

Levi is not looking forward to these next few but not few at all days.

He’s ordered his squad to be especially alert while he’s out, promising the most horrible punishment that is conceivable should he return and Eren not be in one piece. Eren’s limbs may grow back but he isn’t stupid. They’d saluted. Auruo biting his tongue on accident when Petra had stepped on his foot to bring him to attention considering he’d tried to make a shitty joke (under his breath), Guther having to suck back a snicker, Erd the first to salute in answer. Levi would have left it at that, but then he remembered another warning was due. About Hanji-

Levi suddenly remembers the envelope she gave him.

He should destroy it immediately, just in case someone got curious and broke into his room. Looking for something important or some shit. Or just being plain nosy, though he supposes the only person who’d do that that isn’t a spy would be Hanji and she already knows what this is.

Levi plops down on his bed, opening the envelope.

Stills.

He’d thought it’d be the pictures Hanji took of him (badly) but it isn’t.

Levi spreads out the various photos atop his bed. At first it appears they’d been taken from an angle so that it looks like the person doesn’t know the photos are being taken, the pose too natural- laughing with others, then turning, noticing, a scowl, a frown, his brow drawn in doubt (another look Levi is familiar with), before posing as asked-

Smiling.

Eren.

These photos are all of Eren.

When he’d tucked Eren in tonight, drawing the blankets up high. Eren had touched at his hands at the edge of the blankets, bidding him good night, wishing he’ll have a restful sleep- peering over the edge of his covers. His hair dark and messy against his pillow. He’d pulled the covers down near his chin when he’d deigned to speak. Levi had wanted to kiss him. It looked like that’s what Eren wanted too, a good night kiss. It’d only been an excuse, him telling him goodnight- he told himself, that Eren revealed his pink lips for. Really he wants what Levi wants. Levi had fantasized. If they both wanted it… Levi had snapped himself out of it. 

Remembering. 

Duty. 

It did not call for this.

But, he could have even kissed Eren’s brow, not the lips- he could have gotten away with that couldn’t he?

Levi looks over the photos.

If Eren could smile like this for him tomorrow, before he departs, before he can’t see Eren for what will be too long… Levi unties the ties of his sweatpants, letting them slack over his hips. He sits up on his knees on his bed, drawing his large cock out. Hard already, he pumps it. Thinking back on Eren smiling at him when he’d given him the locket. Levi had chosen the locket with the white wing to give to Eren. Eren who is bright and warm, young, beautiful- like white- pure and untouched, clean- sincere and just. Nothing can tame him, taint him, defile him- Eren would refuse all of them, Eren would refuse him-

Levi looks over the pictures.

All for him, all of Eren.

Levi hunches over, trying not to touch, to crinkle or mar the photos as he places a hand above them so he may look at them as he beats himself off. A hand clutching at his pillow. The other locket, the black winged locket- sliding out from beneath his low collared night shirt. Also black. Without the cravat to hide the locket, it won’t stay in place. The locket dangles beneath him, moving as he moves, ramming his hips forward, rutting his cock into his hand. Imagining Eren seated with his _beloved_ Corporal’s clothes about his lap, the brightly coloured thread as he carefully sews those patterns on Levi’s clothing. A soft and warm expression on his face, a gentle smile, hoping that some superstition will be enough to bring about luck for _his_ Corporal’s well being.

Eren is so cute.

Pretty.

All his.

Levi bites down onto his knuckles, gnawing at them. The hand still fisting on the pillow. Levi is groaning. Remembering how Eren’s hair had smelled, how close his mouth had been to his too many times when he’d been working on his clothes, asking him if this fit was better? Or the other? It wasn’t too tight was it? Corporal Levi wasn’t cold was he? He was warm enough wasn’t he?

It must be tight… hot inside Eren. Levi wants to know, his thumb moving to press over the tip of his cock as he feels precum start to gather there, spilling, overflowing, how many times already has he imagined Eren licking here? As he kneeled in front of him, worrying about too many things but not worrying about what he really should be worried about, not knowing about this. How many times has Levi thought of Eren taking his cock into his mouth and sucking on it, diligently, seriously, worriedly trying to please him-

Levi had shut his eyes but he opens them to resume looking at these photos. Levi has only thought of Eren as he usually is when in his presence- nervous and frightened, submissive. But Levi knows Eren can be otherwise. He knows Eren can be confident and brave, strong and fierce. He has seen it- the beast lurking beneath the surface, the same as he, vying to be free, to not be beat, unable to be contained. He has seen Eren’s warmth, his love of humanity, his care for his comrades, his kindness and cruelty. Levi has seen so much of Eren but it’s not enough. He wants to see more.

He wants to see Eren smile at him more, wants to hear him boast more, wants to hear him laugh more. Wants him to not follow him at his heels, but walk aside him. As he should, where he should really be-

Levi wants to hold him. Levi wants Eren in his bed. Levi wants Eren beneath him. Levi wants to be inside Eren, wants to hear him cry and moan, wants to hear him call his name over and over as Levi pounds into him; as Levi is murmuring, coveting, moaning Eren’s name now, over and over. The mattress creaking beneath his weight as he imagines fucking Eren, kissing him. Drool is over his red and bleeding knuckles as he grips himself harder. He raises himself upright, stomach tensing, every muscle hard and strung as he sits back. Switching. So his sword hand moves to clutch at the locket around his neck. His bleeding one to his cock. Thinking, remembering, picturing, knowing that Eren wears the pairing locket, even as he sleeps. Levi had seen the chain poking out. The metal warm from Eren’s skin as Eren settled in beneath his blankets to sleep, his sweet Eren, his adorable Eren- wishing him good night- his eyes fluttering shut sleepily, those long dark lashes against his cheeks as he dreams.

Levi should have kissed him.

Levi remembers how tightly Eren had clutched at the locket when he thought Levi would take it back. His affronted look, incredulous, almost hurt, most wanting. Warning. ‘This is mine!’ is what Eren really wished to say. Should Levi fill him to the brim, stuff his cock inside Eren to the hilt, giving it to him- would Eren say the same? That this- Levi’s cock- is his, and the cum Levi spills inside him, that’s all his too? As Levi thinks about this, his heartbeat in his ears is deafening like a drum. His cum filling Eren, too much, some seeping out from his tight hole and Eren pressing his hand there, his long fingers over the puckered swollen top, distraught that any of the Corporal’s cum would leave him- being it is his- it’d get on his fingers- smearing his thighs-

Levi is moaning Eren’s name again. He wants to fuck Eren. He wants to give it to him. Levi wants to give Eren everything.

Levi leans over one of the photos, looking at Eren’s smiling face before bending forward to kiss at the image. When he departs tomorrow, and can’t see Eren again for such a long while- he envisions Eren drawing his arms over his shoulders and clutching onto him, asking him not to go, complaining how lonely he’ll be without him. Eren pressing his mouth over his. Eren soft and warm, hot (skin) and sweet (crying), clinging to him, begging him- the knuckles of Levi’s hand, covered in the bite of his teeth- blood drips over it, and also his cum. It seeps thick and heavy across those knuckles, rising from between his fingers, thick on the palm of his covering hand. Cum he’d like to place inside Eren, who’s surely sleeping peacefully at this hour, the hour before and the one before that even.

He listens to his disheveled breath, the locket heavy against his heaving chest, his pounding heart.

Levi moves with some difficulty, wading up some tissues, cleaning himself off. 

He can’t decide which photo he wants to take, given to fit it in the locket he will have to fold it, crease it. In the end he cannot control himself, only for this, he folds up the photo of Eren smiling and puts it in the locket. Putting away the rest back into the envelope. He’s unsure where to keep them. He settles on the inner pocket of his uniform. Against the embroidery. He’d asked Erwin why they couldn’t just wear their uniforms to the event once, but the explanation had been long and almost as painful as hearing Hanji talk about titans. He’d never expected that of Erwin but he’d never asked again.

Levi has a longer than planned shower before turning in for the night finally.

Clutching the locket at hand as he lies down to sleep, he kisses it.

“Good night, Eren.”

\--

Levi would have been better off without seeing this.

Eren has already been called for and is standing outside with Erwin. By the carriage that is to take them into Wall Sina, where the event is being held. Erwin has a hand on Eren’s shoulder. They are speaking in low voices, or is it just that Levi has yet to leave the doorway that he cannot hear? Is it only distance-or is it the rushing in his ears, the red in his vision as he tries to bite back the violent anger he feels, abrupt and scalding. What’s before him- as he has thought- further proof, that Eren does not tremble or hesitate before Commander Erwin. Eren is nodding obediently, listening attentively, answering affirmatively. The two of them looking directly into each other’s eyes with an understanding that Levi has not seen before. And he has known Erwin a long time. And Eren-

Had seem all right before Hanji hobbles over, that camera in hand, asking Eren something- who swirls around to her, to answer. Flustered suddenly, almost, embarrassed (at what she said), telling her something in turn, shaking his head-

Eren looks over.

He completely stills on seeing Levi.

Corporal Levi who like Commander Erwin, is dressed in formal attire for the ball.

His hair slicked back as well, white gloves on his hands. His typical cravat in place. Blue silk and white lace adorns various places on the pitch black suit. Bronze buttons painted to look like more than they are worth, imitation gold. Levi knows what the real thing looks like. With Eren so intensely staring at him.

Levi joins them.

A hand at his hip as he scowls.

He’s about to get after Eren for not greeting him, for being out of the dungeon without his leave when he’s still here and in charge of him _until then_ but Erwin interrupts.

“How does Levi look to you, Eren?”

Eren snaps out of his reserve. Looking to Erwin. Nervous, with Levi near him. Levi’s frown is more sour than usual. Before he’d arrived Eren had not been like this. Only to him Eren appears this way, uneasy, afraid. Levi watches as Eren clutches at the side of an arm, as if that’ll stop his trembling.

He’s biting at a lip, gaze averted, as he tries to find the words, or force some out.

Erwin continues, almost mercifully.

“I heard you were helping Levi with his outfit for the ball. It’s wonderful. What you’ve done.”

Levi’s eyes shift to look-

At Eren’s amazed face on being praised.

Following.

To Erwin’s hand as he places it in Eren’s hair, and ruffles it.

If Levi had a sword right now-

He’d have cut it off.

Erwin’s hand, his arm-

Erwin lowers his hand.

“I might have to ask you next time to work on my clothes… but you might be too busy for that even after the ball.”

Before he can get an answer to that, Erwin says to the very reserved Eren, picking up from before-

“What do you say Eren, doesn’t Corporal Levi look even more handsome than I with your hard work?”

Eren is still trying to come up with an answer, his face is too flushed from Erwin’s teasing, his hair still messy. Levi’s scowl is still in place, but it’s easing as he waits. Painfully. Wanting to hear what Eren has to say. So Erwin had asked Eren what he thought of him in his attire? And Eren’s answer had been- the scowl resumes, darker than ever. Levi imagining such a scene before he’d opened the door, what he’d seen fueling his thoughts of what he didn’t see. Erwin asking Eren how he looks without Eren’s efforts, Eren calling him handsome- especially with that pocket watch you can see the chain looping from the vest to the pocket- chain… Levi sees a bit of chain peeking out from beneath Eren’s shirt. From his locket. The way Eren had been nervously wringing his hands before him- he’s holding them pensively to his chest. Surely, though the locket is beneath his shirt Eren can feel it. His hands pressing it to his body. He looks too distraught, being forced to say something he doesn’t want to say-

Levi can’t take this anymore.

“Erwin. Is the carriage ready? Can we go and get this over with?”

The sooner they leave the sooner they can get there and Levi can get away from this throbbing in his chest. Rapid then slow and elongated. As if one has taken a knife and is dragging it along his body, is delving it into his heart like a ship gradually sinking.

Erwin boards the carriage, Levi following after him.

Hanji is waving at them, trying to talk to Eren who won’t give her any notice. He’d avoided Levi’s gaze this whole while but is suddenly at attention, a parting salute as he wishes them safe travel. Looking directly into the yet to be closed window of the carriage, the curtains yet drawn. A few other soldiers will be going with them. To drive the carriage and act as body guards. Levi notes there’s more than a few more this year than the last.

“Eren.”

Levi can’t help himself.

He leans near the open window.

Eren looks up at him, most sharply, abrupt, in compensation of earlier.

“I expect when I return that you’ll greet me better than you did this morning. A ‘Good Morning, Corporal Levi’ would have sufficed. Got it?”

Eren looks like the knife that’d been besieging Levi has been stabbed into him. He salutes harder, speaking louder than he had all morning.

“Yes sir!”

\--

Inside the carriage, it might not have been thought possible but Levi is in an even fouler mood.

Ignoring most of what Erwin has to say (about the stupid stupid ball, whatever), an offhanded response when he feels like he has to. His arms folded, his legs crossed. Leaning back, looking back, peering every so often through the crack in the curtains. Irritated. His clothes fit him well for once, and are not uncomfortable. It’s just him. His skin, this flesh, his thoughts and his actions of before. He wants to return already. He wants to hear what Eren will have to say for when he returns. The expression he’ll make- Levi’s heart throbs, it won’t be an expression like that of the photo Levi is carrying in his locket. He’s not stupid. Only envious. It’s heavy the locket. Levi pulls at it from beneath his clothes, letting it out in the open to dangle beneath his cravat. Touching at it. They’ve barely been traveling an hour and he wants to see Eren. Say something more, to make up for what he’d just said. A reprimand. And all those thoughts, horrible and jealous-

Erwin has suddenly become quiet. Used to Levi being chatty or not, depending his mood, the occasion, the subject.

He’d been speaking about who will be at the ball, who is most likely to speak with them, who has been giving them funds- what might be served for dinner, how Levi doesn’t have to eat if he doesn’t want to (picky), or dance as he never does (he doesn’t like to make contact with anyone if he can avoid it). The usual things. Levi hasn’t been paying any heed to what he has to say. Erwin even brings up Hanji and how she’d wanted to take pictures of them, when that fails to rile any complaints from him Erwin sees he’s no other choice.

Erwin says, speaking more aloud than to Levi.

“Eren seems to be fitting in a lot better than he had before.”

Levi stops his irate fidgeting.

Turning to Erwin.

“What do you mean by that?”

Erwin’s face is as unreadable as a still body of water.

“I was just thinking it’s from your efforts Levi. You’ve really watched over him. Taught him. You chose the right people for him to be around.”

And for him to not be around.

Levi looks at Erwin almost acidly. He knows exactly what Erwin is doing, Erwin who hadn’t been speaking of Eren before.

“So what of it? It’s what I’m supposed to be doing. Never heard you complain ‘bout a job gettin’ done before. Erwin. Or are you praising me on my hard work like you did for Eren? Ah?”

Erwin seems a twinge amused but only someone like Levi, Mike, or Hanji would be able to tell such a thing. Otherwise it’s cool apathy. Saving all his charm for the ball was he? Levi scoffs.

“I’d never ruffle your hair like that.”

Levi has a propped an elbow on the window ledge, his hand to his chin.

Erwin continues, the smirk in his voice but not on his lips.

“I’d be sure to lose my hand if I did.”

Erwin knows Levi too well.

\--

They’d been here for only a few hours but Levi is ready (and had been ready even before departure) to either get the fuck out or set fire to the whole place so he doesn’t have to listen to anymore blather any longer.

Erwin has been talking for hours. Nobles who are interested in how _noble_ their cause is, businessmen who want to know if they’ll ever secure more land for them to invest in, eccentrics and the likeminded, fellow soldiers and etc. Levi doesn’t really understand why he had to come along. The number of personnel Erwin has brought this time really had been more than the previous years. Even triple it might be. What need of him was there? He knows Erwin doesn’t feel assured he’s protected unless Levi is around (because everyone else is such shit about doing their jobs, also they don’t got his reflexes).

But this year it really doesn’t feel like he needs to be about this bodyguard deal he typically is, with the swarm of their own around Erwin along with the swarm of the interested. No doubt someone was taking the time to talk shit too (a lot actually, from his eavesdropping). About Corporal Levi who had been assigned to watch over the titan shifter, that monster, that so-called experiment ‘Eren Yeager’… and was here partying instead. Regardless that Levi had assembled a squad of elite soldiers to look after Eren… was Levi really doing his job? Levi has to agree with them. He much rather be where Eren is than with this cluster of poofed up ninnies and money hungry, power thirsty fucks. Though on that last bit they’re not one to talk.

Levi has been glaring about the whole while. Leaning against a wall in what looks to be a less people dense area, arms crossed. Watching over Erwin and looking over the floor. Recognising some, not caring for many. People Erwin has talked to before he is first to greet, people who know those people second, some unknowns come up to Commander Erwin of their own accord. Compared to the years before aren’t they rather popular? For all the flack that’s being said (he isn’t deaf) about Eren Yeager, Eren sure has drawn people to them.

The evening passes into night.

Levi will settle. Only a few more hours hopefully, and he’ll get to go to the hotel they’re staying at. Erwin’s room will probably be unoccupied- a waste of money Levi bitches about every year as the Commander would probably talk until dawn, negotiate or have a meal or drink at the most promising investor’s place and choose to stay there. Soon, Levi hopes to be in his own room (not a waste of money since he’s using it damn) and sleep on the bed he’d inspected to be of adequacy (had Eren washed the linen it’d have been more vibrant, had he made the bed it would have looked more comfortable), maybe get a bite to eat (that wouldn’t compare to Eren’s cooking, and the care he put in making sure all was washed and prepared to meet Levi’s standards and taste) mulling over it like that. Erwin was not wrong. Levi has taught Eren a lot.

The ball is one night, but the partying and bartering that goes on after… too many days; and the trip back to HQ that’s always like forever.

Levi is tempted to mount his horse now and just fuck off.

He’d showed his face, it’d been a nice gesture or some shit and Erwin seems fine on his own. Even talking to some prestigious miner, jeweler is what he’s understanding from the murmurs behind a gentleman’s hand or a lady’s fan blahblah they’re being rather indiscreet trying to be discreet about talking, gossiping. If Erwin can talk to someone like that and get their backing (given they make a lot of money, mainly off the chittering nobility, who has a lot of money, alright) then they’re good as gold and he really really _really_ doesn’t need to be here.

Where Eren is not.

Levi touches at his locket, turning it about in his fingers, his touch.

When Levi returns surely whatever Eren had been planning to say, as ordered by Corporal Levi- would be lost. Whatever formalities. Gone. As he’d worry, why Corporal Levi had returned so soon. Why his clothing disheveled, his hair a mess. Eren would prepare a hot bath for him right away. Wash his hair, scrub his back, towel him dry. Afterwards, cook him a hot meal, fretting all the while if he likes the taste. Then when that was done with, Levi could carry Eren to his more than adequate bed and find out how hot it is inside Eren-

Just thoughts, just wants, just Levi convincing himself- he really has to leave.

He lets the locket fall over his chest, his hand at his side.

Levi walks over to where Erwin is still talking with the popular, rich and well liked jeweler. Hearing snitch snatches of their conversation. Pleasantries as Erwin reels him in. Normal things like the weather and hobbies. What they used to study, what they’d come to be-

Before Levi had showed up, Levi realises a second too late- the jeweler had been unaware of who Erwin is, and what sort of soldier he be. Commander Erwin is not as well known as-

The jeweler gapes at Levi.

“Corporal Levi. Humanity’s so-called strongest soldier… a member of the Survey Corps…”

The jeweler spits that last bit out.

As if saying ‘the Survey Corps’ has left a rotten taste on his tongue. The jeweler reels around, looking betrayed, affronted. If Corporal Levi has approached them then… the person he’d been speaking to, they’d yet to exchange names huh? Is Commander Erwin Smith. For all his pent up hatred and distaste, this jeweler seems to know quite a bit on the Survey Corps.

He goes on.

Maybe he was taking it too far. It’d been during Commander Keith Shadis’s time that it’d happened after all. Maybe he shouldn’t be so critical. But they’d been in the Survey Corps a long while hadn’t they? They’d followed Commander Shadis, learned from him, and didn’t everyone in the Survey Corps have the same mindset? That they were going to free the people and liberate all of humanity from the titans?

How was that to be done?

When the higher ups protect their own lives and use everyone else who was foolish enough to follow them like fodder? Bait? Foolishness.

They’re a bunch of murderers is what they are.

The fact that they’d allowed some criminal from the underground, the fact that they’d allowed a titan, into their ranks- the fact that nothing still had been done- only hopes and dreams obliterated and with them so many lives of young men, young women who only wanted happiness- the jeweler’s fury is tangible.

So many futures that would never be.

Erwin has listened in silence, his voice calm and collect, even a tinge gentle, remorseful- as he asks what the jeweler’s name is-

But the jeweler does not hear him, having turn back and forth between them. Voice gaining volume and attention (everyone had been paying attention on account of who he is, even before his shouting) on his soap box of grievances towards the Survey Corps. His eyes have lowered to look at one thing.

The locket Corporal Levi has around his neck. 

His face, red and purple from yelling is white as ash.

He raises a hand, gesturing for Levi to take off that locket-

No longer yelling, his voice suddenly a hollow whisper.

He takes a step forward as if he will rip the locket from Levi’s neck. But good luck to him if he thinks an attempt can be made. Levi tenses, glancing to Erwin who is looking at neither of them but to the sound of sharp heels, clinking against the polished floor. Honed in on this approaching figure. Levi sees the smirk Erwin had in his voice earlier, come to his lips.

Levi snaps his gaze over to who has arrived.

The jeweler reeling around at their entry as they say- loudly-

“Commander Erwin! Corporal Levi! Excuse my tardiness!”

Long dark hair.

Flowing over, masking how broad the bare shoulders be of the figure before them. Decked in white. A long white dress with embroidery done along the edge of the skirt and the top of it. Bright and dark blue flowers, to match the satin sash about the waist, tied back in a bow. Lace same to as that on Levi’s outfit, peeks out the edge of the long skirt, hovering beneath its bell shape over the red heels the wearer has on.

They salute. Their hands in long white gloves, with similar embroidery like that from the dress along the sides, red flowers. Green the leaves among all the petals of all the embroidery. An arm drawn behind them, the hand above the bow. A fist to their chest that’s bodice is stuffed surely. The locket that’s hanging from their neck, moving, chiming, with the motion of their salute.

The white wing on their locket as white as their dress.

“Reporting for duty! Ere-… Ellen… Ellen Ackerman!”

Knowing he cannot say his own name, and given the heels had been borrowed from Mikasa. Eren borrows her surname as well, just for tonight. Anyone who does know him (General Pixis, whose laughter can be heard in the distance) can already tell who it really is beneath that disguise, to the other guests present- to the jeweler who no longer looks at Corporal Levi… his locket. But instead to Eren.

His voice full of disbelief though he’d been speaking for the young folk who died in battle only moments before. Did he think that by his words just at that moment, the soldiers who’d recently joined could hear him and mutiny on the double?

“You’re part of the Survey Corps… such a young lady…”

Commander Erwin nods to Eren.

“Good you could make it, Ellen.”

“Thank you very much, Commander!”

As this exchange occurs, the jeweler is still murmuring to himself.

Levi jolting forward, stopping himself barely, when he feels Erwin’s hand on his shoulder.

The jeweler had grabbed not at Eren’s locket, but his arm. 

“Miss! Please tell me you are not part of the Survey Corps! Someone such as you! So young and with a bright future- you’ll die! You’ll die outside the walls! They’ll kill you! These murderers-! They killed my son! If he had not joined the Survey Corps… if only…”

Eren is taken aback.

The fury underlying beneath Eren’s gaze smoldering, recognizing those words. Horrible accusations, disbelief and scorn he had so despised since a child- that he’s often heard of the Survey Corps.

Eren stifles his rage- hearing that this man’s voice… is only of a father who has lost his son.

Eren speaks. His voice familiar to those who’d been present at his trial, but different, changed, stronger- confident.

A voice full of conviction.

But also kind.

He is not without sympathy, without empathy to loss.

It is because of it-

He wrenches his arm from the jeweler’s grip.

A hand to his chest.

“Sir. I am a soldier. I do not regret becoming a member of the Survey Corps. They have saved me. Many times already if it weren’t for Corporal Levi I would have died. He is strong and brave! He has showed me far more kindness than I deserve! It is thanks to him that I am here! It is not the Survey Corps who threaten to take my life, but the titans. The titans threaten us all! They will kill every last one of us if we do not kill them first!”

The grieving father-

“Even if that’s so! Can’t you see? We can’t beat them! So many have died… too many have… my son...”

His hand is on Eren’s arm again, but Eren does not wrench it away. Such a feeble grip, a defeated grip. Who is it that remains after the vanquished? It is people like him. The father sinks to the ground. Weeping. Clutching at Eren’s skirts.

At seeing tears, Eren pauses, freezes, then- for he must not back down- for he cannot back down-

“That is all the more reason sir. For all those lives who hoped for a better tomorrow, for all those lives who fought for a bigger future- they fought not only for the sake of all who still live and stand here today. They fought for their own futures as well. If my future is to sacrifice myself for humanity then I do not mind. I have made my bets… if you fight and lose you die. But if you win, you live. That was the future your son chose, offering up his heart. Do you plan to live the rest of your life, refusing to believe in the cause your son gave his heart up for? “

Eren has bent over, taking up his skirts cautiously; he pulls them from the grieving father’s hands.

The father who hides his face, the tears on them he’d not shed before. Had not allowed himself to shed until this day. Eren pries his hands from his face, determined to get through to him. Voice gentle- coaxing- hopeful.

“Please believe in him sir! Please… believe in us!”

What Petra had said to Eren.

Levi's Squad who had decided they would support him, as their Corporal supports Eren.

Eren who wants to fight alongside them.

Eren who would die even if he must among them.

Eren is one of them.

Be he human, titan or beast.

He is a soldier of the Survey Corps.

The father replies to Eren’s plea.

“I hope… when my son was alive… that he met someone like you while in the Survey Corps. I wish… he’d been more like you. That was the problem you see. I couldn’t believe. He wasn’t really brave my boy. He always liked to go with the flow. My wife and I always complained about it, how cowardly he was. How lacking he was as an individual. It reflected much of his work until he joined the Survey Corps… something only he could do he said. Something only a select of them could do. Because not everyone is brave enough. Still I’d not been convinced.”

The father rises to his feet.

“…but, he must have been brave enough to choose such a future for himself. And as his father I should have supported him. You’re right, I should have believed in him. Even if he died just like all the rest. He did what he thought would be best for his future. The future of humanity… I’d given up on such a thing even before he joined the Survey Corps. I couldn’t see…”

He notices.

The locket Eren is wearing.

He picks up the locket and looks at it. The work his son did. The work he’d left behind, the pain he’d left behind.

“…I couldn’t see what a beautiful world he wanted to live in.”

Without a doubt, this jeweler, is the son of the jeweler that Erwin had sent Levi to to have his pocket watch fixed. No doubt, Erwin had planned such a thing. Hoping to use his fixed watch as a conversation starter or buffer. He’d planned it. Like he’d planned Eren coming to the ball and that’s why Levi had to be here. Had Erwin told Levi about this he would have objected, it being too dangerous. But Eren isn’t the only one who makes bets. The Commander is fond of them. What he and Eren had been speaking of at the carriage must have been this… what else had Erwin planned? What else did Erwin foresee?

The father lets the locket down gently.

“I have heard you. I understand my son better because of you. Thank you.”

Eren is tapping his fingers together, taken aback.

“Ah… no, forgive me for my forwardness. I was just saying whatever I liked again…”

Eren’s gaze darts nervously over to Corporal Levi, before darting away. Eren’s face turning red.

The father accepts the handkerchief Erwin offers him to wipe his face. He’s laughing, the jeweler a little embarrassed but more relieved than anything. He thanks Erwin before turning back to Eren.

“I’d ask to have a dance with you, but I’m sure your intended would mind that. Given how beautiful you are. The locket is a perfect match.”

Eren looks confused.

“Plus my wife might not be too happy, even if she isn’t here tonight. People talk. I’m sure patrons will be talking about this behind my back for quite some while.”

Eren is still confused at what had been said earlier.

Seeing Eren has not said anything, nor moved from the spot (wracking his brain over what the jeweler could have meant).

“Miss Ackerman. Congratulations. Thinking of how passionately and highly you spoke of him earlier, I’m sure you made the right choice.”

Eren looks from the jeweler to Commander Erwin who intrudes.

“Don’t be shy. He’s been waiting for you all night.”

Erwin places a hand on Eren’s shoulder, not to hold him back as he had to Levi, but rather coax him forward. Extending out a hand to gesture to-

Levi.

Levi wants to beat the shit out of Erwin.

This son of a bitch.

Using Eren like that to soften up this potential investor. For sure investor. As Erwin introduces himself and gets the name he already knows of from the jeweler. Erwin explains how he had his pocket watch worked on by the jeweler’s father and how it was working like new, how they enjoyed the work of his son who’d been one of them… Erwin had planned all of this. He’d been conveniently played. Erwin knows.

It’s why he’d teased Eren before Levi.

It’s why he’d allowed Eren to come here.

Erwin knows how Levi feels about Eren.

And had been using that.

Along with Eren, oblivious, too valiant for his own good-

His Eren-

Levi has not much time for his seething as Eren hobbles over to him. Hard to walk in those heels surely. Eren is holding his hands about him nervously. Touching at his locket again. As Erwin goes off with the jeweler and a few other interested guests, to better speak of their involvement in supporting the Survey Corps.

Leaving Corporal Levi with Eren, allowing them time alone.

Erwin’s reward to him.

Levi can’t stand him.

He’d allowed Eren to be put in this danger, among these pack of wolves, dressed like this-

All because of what Erwin had set up or decided to utilise for his interests, for the sake of the Survey Corps. 

Even when they are not outside the walls, Erwin is thinking, manipulating them all over the battlefield. What that father had said, cried about- was not all wrong. But Levi can’t think of that now. He grabs at Eren, urging him to follow him to some place even more secluded. An unoccupied balcony. Grabbing some drinks and food along the way, to hell with it. Levi closes the doors, shutting them out from the bright light, the ever present chatter, the fake or drunk laughter.

Levi is ready to get drunk.

He plops down the platter of whatever he’d nabbed, the bottle of wine too- on the small table outside. The glasses he’d had Eren hold, Eren sets confusedly. Still confused about everything. Levi sits down heavily on one of the chairs. Crossing his legs.

It’s not until Levi has had a few glasses of wine that Eren ventures to speak.

“Uhm… Corporal Levi…”

That it’s his name first and foremost being said. Is not helping Levi for all his good or bad intentions.

“What. Eren.”

Eren is taken aback.

“Is it really alright to be addressing me as such? Commander Erwin said-”

“To hell with whatever the fuck Erwin said. He can go to hell.”

Eren looks surprised, not at Levi’s language but to who such language is addressed to.

Levi doesn’t care, he can’t. Not when Erwin has placed him in hell. 

Eren is beautiful.

It’s not just the wine, but if Eren had been born a woman Levi wouldn’t have minded. Eren is pretty like one, the dress suits him well. The wig is a similar shade of brown to that of his hair. His face is done up a little. There’s a bit of lipstick on the glass of wine, he’d only taken a sip at Levi’s prompting.

Levi lets his eyes roam over Eren’s body, his bare throat. The locket that hangs around it not tucked in for once but out, atop his chest. Levi would have liked to see Eren’s arms bare like his shoulders, but they are covered with his hands in case of any unhealed, telltale bitemark. The bow around his waist is only highlighting his wide hips and he doesn’t need much added to the rear of the dress. Eren has not sit this whole while, standing on his feet, unsure if he should be at attention or not. Levi has an arm flung over the top of his chair. Holding, drinking what is his sixth… eighth, fuck he doesn’t know, glass of wine. 

If it was poisoned he’d be dead already and if it was any better he’d be drunk by now. Eren just had that little sip, shit he’s still not of age… he probably didn’t want to risk spilling any on his pretty white dress. And that’s also why he wasn’t sitting either. Close to Corporal Levi who despite being a clean freak, you never know, might spill some wine on Eren… he can’t do that. He can’t mess up Eren’s dress like that, he can’t dirty Eren’s skin like that-

Levi downs the rest of the wine in his glass.

Eren is too pretty, in his too pretty white dress.

Like he’s someone’s bride-

Levi shudders, thinking about making Eren his bride. If Eren were his bride. If Eren were all his.

Levi takes up the bottle and pours himself another glass.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough, sir?”

Eren’s voice is surprisingly chiding but full of concern.

“Already nagging me even though we haven’t gotten married yet?”

Levi drinks the whole glass down again.

Licking his lips.

“Still don’t get it yet Eren? Erwin made this shitty plan. The jeweler saw your locket, then saw my locket that I got from the place that fixed up Erwin’s watch and assumed we were engaged. Such is the meaning of this locket. This sorta gold. Erwin is a right bastard ain’t he.”

Eren’s brow is creased in concern.

He doesn’t know.

He didn’t before, but Levi had seen it. Eren’s ever growing look of confusion as he’d approached him back in the ballroom, egged on by Erwin to draw closer to Levi. Levi had seen Eren’s gaze move to the locket he’s wearing. Recognising it, not understanding.

They’d warned Levi as he’d made the purchase.

That the gold used for these lockets was the gold typically used to make engagement rings. That had been the idea behind the lockets. They are for couples intending to marry. The pair is for lovers.

They’re a couple alright, a pair of idiots.

That’s all Levi can think, almost, finally drunk- as he looks over Eren’s unsure, frowning mouth. Eren who refuses to sit aside him. Eren with long dark hair over his shoulders that Levi would like to place his hands on, sliding up to cup Eren’s face. Eren’s painted red mouth Levi would like to kiss and mar his lips with. Leaving marks with the paint and his teeth as he nips and sucks down Eren’s neck and throat, his hands drawing over Eren’s waist to his hips.

Levi has a hard time pouring himself another glass so Eren helps him, expression unreadable and withdrawn.

“Why don’t you sit Eren? Have something or other to eat.”

“I’m fine where I am sir. However, if you order it I will sit.”

Levi thinks about it, not wanting to make Eren do what he doesn’t want to do- before asking what he’s been wondering about.

“Did you make your dress?”

Eren flushes such a pretty colour, that goes past his cheeks, down that Levi can’t help but stare. As if he hasn’t been staring all this while.

“It had been… Squad Leader Hanji’s. She said it wasn’t really her thing so gave it to me. And Ms Petra helped me modify it. Mikasa and Krista helped as well. Mikasa lent me her heels… since our feet are the same size… I had no idea she owned this sorta thing…”

Mikasa had been very gun-ho about the idea, though thoroughly warning about cautions Eren should take. Petra assuring her that Eren would be fine since Corporal Levi would be at the ball, this comment Mikasa had soured on. Before getting back into a softer mood, telling Eren-

“I have to agree with Mikasa even if it makes me a little sad. Dressed like this it really is obvious I take after my mother…”

Eren is looking over his dress, a half twirl to compensate it’s not a mirror he looks into.

Levi knows of it. How part of why Eren wants to kill the titans so much is because his mother had been eaten by one when Wall Maria had fallen.

Levi swirls the wine a little in his glass before putting the glass up.

“She must have been an extremely beautiful woman.”

Within Eren’s stunned silence Levi tries to stand up. 

Finding it a little hard to. Bullshit. He’s so full of shit but Eren rushes over to him to help him. With his hands on Levi like this, trying to support him- Levi has no qualms with pulling Eren close to him, using the excuse he needs help to place his hand about Eren’s waist.

“Ah. Thanks.”

“No. It is I who should be thanking you sir.”

For the compliment he’d given his mother.

For all Eren’s assistance, Levi sits back down again. Having gotten an idea.

Pulling Eren with him, who sits up awkwardly on his lap.

Levi reaches for what food he’d grabbed, some platter of fruit. Biting into a strawberry and deeming it sweet enough and probably not going to kill them, maybe Eren’s titan powers can assist him in that. Levi pushes the half eaten fruit to Eren’s lips for him to eat. Insisting. Eren overwhelmed as he’d been trying to get off Levi’s lap. Not allowed with Levi’s arm around his waist. 

If the food is poisoned, Levi doesn’t mind dying. Eren’s mouth nipping against his fingers, a muffled apology, lipstick on the tips, a sigh and gasp as he feeds Eren every other bite of the fruit he eats. Thumbing away whatever juice that spills. Eren finally able to pull away, complaining he’s full. Levi’s legs weak as Eren slips away from him, fretting over the lipstick but Levi had made sure to wipe away any that strayed from Eren’s lips. Eren’s lips he didn’t dare touch.

Eren is taking another hesitant sip of the wine in his glass. When Levi finds the bottle empty, he asks if Eren wants anymore of the liquid still in his glass. Downing the remainder in Eren’s glass when Eren replies negative. With all the wine gone, and Levi not saying anything. Not even bothering at this point, to not stare at Eren.

Eren folds his arms, obviously uncomfortable. Wanting to say something but refraining. Swaying a bit in contemplation, a frown on his face.

Levi will drag out whatever it is Eren wants to say.

“What’s wrong? Gotta take a dump?”

Eren is still frowning. He’d been given orders to a certain extent by Commander Erwin, and Corporal Levi was supposed to give the rest of the orders (so Commander Erwin had assured him). But so far…

“No… I was just thinking we’ve been here a while… Corporal Levi, shall we go back to the ballroom? Or perhaps we can leave?”

Levi likes the idea of leaving.

Leaving with Eren.

A lot.

But Eren isn’t looking at him, and Levi gets the idea Eren will separate from him once they exit from their personal bubble, the balcony.

“Fine. But remember what I said before, you’re not allowed to be farther than two feet from me.”

“Only two feet?! How will that be possible? And what you said before pertained to horseback, this isn’t the same sir-”

“How is it not the same? You are not to leave my sight while you are here Eren. This is an order.”

Eren looks but for a moment like he will object.

Then.

“Understood. However… how are we to go about this? Corporal.”

Levi stands with ease, but slowly. Eren doesn’t seem to pay it mind or difference, honed in on what sort of answer he is to receive.

Levi offers his arm to Eren.

“Like this.”

\--

Levi had informed Commander Erwin they’re leaving. Erwin had nodded, confirming that’s what should be done… that Ellen looked rather tired, and she’d not even gotten to have a dance yet. A shame. Levi does not miss the way Erwin’s gaze falls to Eren’s mouth, however momentary it was.

Eren’s lipstick not as bright or shiny as it’d been before, given he’d been eating earlier.

Erwin probably thinks a different reason for it.

They’d walked out of the mansion the ball was being hosted at, with Eren’s hands on his arm. Levi leading the way, but Eren helping him. Levi does have to admit, even with his often considered inhuman speed and coordination, when he’s a bit drunk like this he’s not as steady as he’d been if he weren’t drunk. No shit.

And maybe he isn’t only a bit drunk.

Maybe he’s a lot drunk.

He’d finished that bottle of wine, and maybe he’d had a few sips of other crap before Eren had showed up. Being bored outta his mind. Antsy.

It’s really Eren’s fault he’s like this.

It’s a precaution.

You can’t get it up as easily when you’re pissed outta your brains, or so had been his intention. Even with his arm back around Eren’s waist. His hand clenching over Eren’s hip. Eren tucked aside him with that arm around him. His hands folded before him rather neatly. Levi had thought Eren was having a hard time walking in those heels but he seems to have gotten the hang of it. His steps sturdier having to assist in keeping Levi’s weight up, more precise even on the treacherous cobblestone. Was it only because he has to support Levi that he’s able to walk as this?

Levi isn’t thinking much about that, nor paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should be. 

Eren is coming back with him to his hotel room.

Eren who keeps asking him if he is alright, who stops every now and then to fix at his dress, or move some lock of hair he’s not used to having- getting in Levi’s face- also not used to being this close to Levi outside of sewing- training- when Levi tucks him in at night-

The streets are fairly empty the farther away from the ball they get.

They could have taken the carriage but Levi figured Erwin need as much personnel with him as possible with Levi leaving.

He’d also not wanted to bother and he’d wanted this excuse for Eren to come as close to him as he is. Eren who isn’t trembling, or shying away from him… Eren who… just wants to help him because he is his superior officer, his comrade. Corporal Levi of the Survey Corps.

The night is ink black dark.

The stars are out but none can see from the dibble dabble amount of lighted houses in this city within Wall Sina. There are many street lamps, but the ones they pass on their way to the hotel are out with each passing. Perhaps this is not a well traveled street they are taking, or most of the resources are being used for streets the carriages of guests will be taken should they retire soon like they have or later, early morning, even later night.

The sound of Eren’s heels are sharp and loud in the silent night air.

He’s panting a little from walking all this while. The arm that’d been around his waist is over his shoulders as Levi slumps more, stumbles more, isn’t making this any easier. Holding at his head on occassion. Swearing. He has to think of something, think of a way to convince Eren to stay in his room as he stays out of it. At the door. His stupid, drunk ass. If Eren will obey an order in this state he’s in. That Eren will sleep where he says and Levi will take watch, outside the room. Levi can’t. He can’t stay in the same room as Eren, in the same space as him alone any longer. Despite how drunk he’s gotten, he still wants to fuck Eren. He wants to kiss Eren. To take off this pretty dress that’s covering up his pretty Eren.

Levi wouldn’t mind if Eren kept those red heels on as he fucks him against torn satin and lace, the locket heavy against his chest. Levi heavy above him, boring into him. Eren gripping his shoulders, the wig falling off as Levi rakes his hands through Eren’s hair from up his body as Eren rakes his nail down Levi’s back. Leaving trails of red like his kisses would against Levi’s neck, then his mouth as Levi kisses him-

Eren isn’t sure about where the hotel is. As he asks Levi about the directions- he’s surprised at Levi’s sudden surge in strength and regaining of balance… Levi walks away from him, waving him off, telling Eren he has to take a piss. He does so, in an alley. Feeling more than a little disgusted with himself not only from this but his thoughts before. He has a flask of water and handkerchief he uses to wash his hands, for times like these. When he’s done he returns to Eren, feeling better. Eren teasing him a little, maybe taking advantage that he’s drunk and might not remember- was he having a hard time walking before, because he had to pee? Levi slaps at Eren’s ass, tough talk from someone who still needed to take a dump, or would Eren like a turn in the ally? Did he need any help with all these stupid frills and layers and-

Eren is looking back at him affronted, having stepped ahead, away from him.

Almost pouting, embarrassed, but still teasing.

Levi can’t help the surprise starting to ebb over him… that Eren could act this way in front of him-

They walk a little more, side by side, the hotel should be just a couple more blocks. They pass through a roundabout. A fountain at the centre of it. The dripping, running water, louder than Eren’s heels. Levi is glad he already took a piss otherwise this fountain would not have been helping. They pass by it, through to another dark street.

Eren is walking ahead of Levi. Starting to wander past the two feet Levi had warned about. Eren is definitely not out of his sight, as Levi follows the movement of Eren’s swaying dark hair that falls to his waist, his moving hips as he walks. Levi can’t help himself from staring at Eren’s ass; that looks even bigger in this sort of attire. More obviously so. Levi starts to wonder what Eren is wearing under his dress. Panties, stockings, anything at all-

Eren suddenly stops and turns to him, realising he was beyond two feet. As Corporal Levi nears him, Eren speaks- abashed and hesitant to say anything-

“I thought I should wait until we got to the hotel but… I can’t hold it in any longer sir…”

“Ah? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Levi drags Eren into the nearest alleyway. 

“If you have to go just go already.”

It’d be hard to, since Levi is holding onto Eren’s wrists. Pushing him against a wall, deeming a place he thinks there will be enough room. Eren is scarlet and incredulous. 

“Ha?! What are you saying, sir?”

“Doncha gotta take a dump? Hurry up if you’re gunna do it, we ain’t got all night.”

Eren is sputtering.

“That is not what I meant Corporal Levi!”

Wrists freed as Levi decides to sate his curiosity as he gives Eren a hand.

“What’s the problem? Don’t be a brat, we all do it. Or do ya need some help? Let me help you Eren.”

Levi starts to uplift Eren’s skirts, pinning Eren beneath him against the wall. Eren squirming and trying to get away, for all his flexibility and Levi being not in top form from being rather drunk, he still can’t escape in this sort of binding attire.

There’s garters and stockings, panties with the same sort of lace on them as the hem of the dress. Levi snakes his hands under the skirts, touching and feeling about as he likes, trying to unsnap buckles and not keep groping Eren’s ass. Eren has stopped struggling. Levi finding it peculiar- familiar- the something else he sees while trying, with much difficulty- to pull down Eren’s panties and keep his skirts hitched-

Straps.

There are leather straps for 3D maneuver gear under Eren’s skirts, about his legs.

His skirts that don’t lift up all too well from what’s stitched into them, beneath them- held by the harness of these leather straps. There’s no gear for flight under Eren’s skirts but there are blades.

Levi feels it finally, why Eren had stopped struggling.

Eren who is focused, predatory and alert at what’s before them.

The intent to kill.

Levi trails a hand up the side of Eren’s thighs, his buttocks to his hip, before coming to grab the hilt of the sword sheathed partially in the fabric, ripping, cutting the blade out from the dress as he swings around not with the blade but a knife he keeps in his sleeve. Carrying it in a back handed grip to deflect the knife that is hurled at them, snapping it out so the blade is upward and held out before him. The sword he’s torn from Eren’s dress in a backhanded grip. The steel vibrant like Eren’s glaring eyes as both he and Levi look up from the dark to where the moonlight hits, stretches over… their attackers.

Three figures in cloaks stand atop the building looking down on them; by the way the fabric of their cloaks are it doesn’t seem there is any long shooting rifle to worry over. If a smaller pistol is on their person- they are not risking the gunshots. They have been sent here to kill as covertly as possible. The 3D maneuver gear only one of them wears is already causing enough sound as they use it to jump down from the roof, their two partners carried with them. Wielding knives, another a sword.

Dark hair peaks out of a hood as the one to approach them, a sword much like theirs at hand is thrust out, held not too badly for someone with such untrained footing.

This whole while an assassination attempt would be expected toward Commander Erwin, the highest ranking in the Survey Corps and not well liked by many. And had it been known Eren Yeager would be present this would also be understandable. Levi has to admit, he didn’t expect anyone to try to kill him in anything other than Erwin’s crossfire.

But it’s him they are after.

He can feel what sort of blood thirst they possess- from the trapped air about them, the way they hesitantly move beneath the sky. They must be a sight to see in the day.

Their attackers-

“Corporal Levi! If we kill you we will obtain citizenship for the surface! Prepare to die!”

Are also from the underground.

It takes a beast to kill a beast don't it?

The one holding the sword points it out, gesturing.

“Let’s go you guys!”

Levi rushes to stand before Eren, blocking the knives that are thrown their way, using his own to hack the tosses knives away. The three signal to each other. A hood flies back as a guy with short dark hair, the one carrying the 3D maneuver gear hoists the one with the sword, the shortest and lightest of them, up on his arm. Catapulting her up in the air with his strength and momentum from the gear so she kicks against a wall. Landing behind Eren.

She blocks the exit. 

The man who’d thrown the knives wears a pair of goggles that reminds Levi of Hanji.

It’s perfect.

To rile up his annoyance to an even higher level than it already is at being interrupted. 

“Are you so sure? It don't seem like I have to prepare for much.”

Running his mouth, Levi distracts them. He can feel and smell their apprehension. Their nervousness, their tension. He should give them some regard, being they’re the same scum as he, being as they all have come to fight him, to kill him. That takes guts. Guts that’ll probably end up on the streets if they’re any second slower.

He draws up the sword still in a backhanded grip, deflecting the next barrage of knives almost bored. Flicking his own knife exactly- letting it fly so it cuts through leather and lodges not into flesh, but the gas tank of the 3D maneuver gear. He knows its workings perfectly. Had they really been sent to kill him, or was some amused nobleman having a laugh and had sent them all to die?

Before Levi approaches the two men before him, he glances back to the woman, the one who’d jumped- Eren has ripped the other sword from his dress. Holding it before him in a gloved hand, as he uses his mouth to pry the glove on the free hand off. If need be Eren would- a panic rises in Levi. 

“OI! EREN! Unless ordered you are only allowed to use that sword to fight! Do you understand?!”

Eren spits the glove out from his mouth, “I understand sir!”

On hearing Eren’s obedient answer, Levi does not hesitate.

Leaping forth faster than could be followed- he kicks, pummels- the guy in goggles, smacking them off his face with a kick to the face, swirling around to hack his sword over the rest of the 3D gear. Smashing it underfoot, a sweep to his legs and the rubble of it tripping the dark haired attacker, a chop to his throat sending him down, lifted momentarily with a knee in the ribs. Before he slams against a wall. He’s choking. Gasping for breath, his comrade no longer wearing goggles knocked out. Levi turns from them. The wall behind them. Had they thought could be an advantage? So used to existing in enclosed spaces. They’d been stupid, thinking fighting from a corner would surprise them. Or be better for the gear should they need it to escape. It didn’t matter in the end. Levi is too strong for them either way. Levi looks them over, making sure they can’t move and so won’t try anything more before turning his back on them.

Walking out of the alleyway where Eren and that woman had ran in pursuit of the other, the woman surprised as Eren had forced her out into open space. His blade relentless, swift and sure. She’s not bad for someone without military training… but she cannot win against someone with military training, and most of all someone like Eren. Not with a sword at the least.

Her hood as fallen down, her short dark hair a mess about her face. As is the long locks of Eren’s wig about his, flickering in the motion of the fight and wind but still flowing about him as he faces off with the attacker. Still wearing those damn heels. 

He’d been having such a hard time moving in them before, but it must not have been the heels- it had been the swords he was trying to keep hidden that had made Eren awkward in movement all night. It’d been those swords, this mission, this precaution that’d hindered him. The skirt torn and the blades out. Eren is freer for movement than he has at any other point tonight. A newly uncaged animal is a task indeed.

The young woman looks overwhelmed as Eren bores onto her. Often missing her clean and strong swings, cuts, only by a hair’s width- barely, flexing, twisting his body this way and that, not caring where his dress is cut. The cuts that do manage to slice through skin too shallow and heal immediately. The sight of skin repairing itself, blood dripping none, and the steam that rises- unnerving to the woman. A terror in her motions. Unnatural. Odd. Confused. Unsure of what she’d seen-

“Why! Why are you here! If you weren’t here, if you’d not been a soldier- I hadn’t been expecting you to be one of them! I thought you were just some girl he picked up-”

Eren is annoyed, Levi surprised to hear him reply- most often he wouldn’t bother, not to the enemy- not to someone so clearly a foe.

But the real enemy to Eren…

Is titans ain’t it?

“That’s not the first time today I’ve been asked that. I am a soldier. Because I will kill all the titans!”

Their blows have been equal, both tiring. Eren who has not danced all night dancing now before Levi’s eyes, and this woman, this girl from the underground who probably fears but rejoices in the magnificence of the sun that will soon rise. Their time is near out, and she must know, seeing Levi standing before the alleyway, only watching- that if he is breathing and her comrades have not come to her to back her up in this fight- then she is all that’s left.

As desperation takes her swings, something else shades her being- her fury- that which only a human beyond the brink of despair can muster. 

Instinct.

It’s not enough.

Not against Eren’s cultivated intuition.

Eren calls out to her, when they part from blows. Her chest heaving, panting. She is bleeding, somewhere, there there and there Eren had cut into her. Before long it will catch up to her.

“Please! I do not wish to fight you any longer. There is someone who is making you all do this, is there not? Please surrender! I promise I will not harm you or any of your comrades if you turn yourself in! Please stop at once!”

The woman looks at Eren in amazement.

Two beasts stare each other down as another watches.

“Making us? No, we chose this. We’re going to gain citizenship on the surface and be free of that hell!”

She rushes forth, scarily fast, on her last leg, getting in close.

Eren’s shoulder is cut, the blood sputtering out and blinding the young woman. Surprised to land such a hit, blinded by the blood- even with that she does not hesitate, she turns to swing her blade again. But it near slips from her. The blood making it so, and an even bigger surprise.

Eren has removed his wig. A scowl over his features, the length of the hair a hinderance.

With it gone there is no mistake if you have seen him before- in the papers, on fliers.

“Wait, you’re not-?!”

The woman pauses, horrified. If Eren is a boy, that face, that hair style- those eyes.

“Eren… Corporal Levi called you Eren earlier, you’re that Eren- _Eren Yeager_ , the human who can turn into a titan, no way, a lie- why did they send us if-”

She bites at her lip and swings again. From this distance, if she cuts again maybe she can- but Eren’s wound finally heals up. The steam rising as her sword is brought down and she panics panics panics. Misses.

Half of Eren’s body comes crashing down onto hers from behind, legs pinning her. She jabs her sword up toward Eren’s neck, but Eren has grabbed her around the neck with an arm, forcing her other arm to get in her way. Wrapping his arm around her as such, his arm is also in the way of his sword to her neck. If he lets go he might be faster than her. But if she’s faster-

No.

Eren speaks, resolute.

“…now that you know who I am, you understand don’t you? To cut my neck you’re going to have to cut through your own arm. To cut your neck I will have to cut through my arm. But, if you cut through your arm it won’t grow back. If I cut through my arm _it will grow back_. Do you see what choice you have to make?”

A human is not faster than a monster.

Even so, through her tears- she responds-

“No! I will kill you! And then I will kill Corporal Levi! If we don’t… if we don’t we can’t stay here… they’ll send us back there- no, no! I won’t go back there! I don’t want to live underground anymore! I want to live on the surface! _Like normal people do!_ _**I’M A PERSON DAMMIT NOT SOME BUG!**_ ”

Those words.

Surely Eren is moved.

Surely he does not want to, even after all this- to kill this person.

He joined the Survey Corps to protect humanity not fight amongst them.

The real monsters are often times human.

Not only titans.

But that is a lesson Eren will have to learn another day.

Tonight, their attackers are not monsters.

And truly, neither is Eren.

Levi figures he should do something.

He has been still and watching, breathless not heartless.

Blinded not by the rising sun but Eren’s radiance. Eren who fought to cover his back, Eren who is fighting to protect him, Eren who held a sword not only for himself but Levi as well.

Seeing such a thing.

Eren who always tries his hardest. Eren who stands for what he believes in. Eren who trusts in him.

Eren who looks to him, saying nothing but asking all the same, the light of morning on his shoulders, alight his hair, his figure. His eyes wide and wondering of an answer. What it is that _he_ should do? He has acted so far at his discretion, what he thinks must be done, what he thinks is allowed, but now he needs Corporal Levi’s permission. His final word.

His order.

But.

The order Corporal Levi had given before back in the alleyway-

Will be unheeded.

Levi watches in cold horror as Eren throws away his sword, that freed hand reaching to where he is. Eren bringing his bare hand up to his mouth, fear in Eren’s eyes.

Levi hears behind him movement. A click.

The one who’d wore the 3D maneuver gear, had a weapon after all.

“I know you said not to Nifa but there’s no other way!”

A pistol is in his hand.

Levi yells, turning not to his attacker but keeping his gaze on Eren. Eren who no longer holds his attacker back; his neck uncovered. Levi holds a hand held out towards Eren, reaching for his hand-

“EREN DON’T DO IT!”

The bite accompanies the pull of a trigger.

A bang.

Another.

Heat.

The light of morning escapes Corporal Levi’s vision.

And then it is as dark as the night, as dark as the underground.


	2. one thought

Eren is smiling at him.

That is all Levi remembers of his dream as the remnants of it fade away. Further memory recalls- the light of morning on his shoulders and then the depths of the dark. Not emptiness. Not nothingness. Something is there in the dark. Himself?

There are curtains drawn over his bedside window. And the light is dim. Not only from the curtains drawn but that it is past midday. The day will soon turn to evening, then dusk. Night again. Levi has never feared the dark. He is a person from the underground. Though he as many others, longed for freedom, the beauty of a sky without a ceiling. In truth the dark does not bother him as much as it should for a human.

The comfort and familiarity of it.

What stupidity.

Levi blinks back sleep as he wakes, recognising the ceiling as the one of his bedroom.

There’s some movement at his bedside, a person.

Their exclamation of surprise tells him it’s not who’d he’d been expecting.

Wanting.

“Eren. Where’s Eren?”

Levi turns a glance to them.

His voice is hoarse.

Hanji sits up from her seat. An amused twinge to her lips on hearing his misused voice and her own reaction. Adjusting her glasses. She’d been reading that book she has in hand, for a while. A finger placed where she’d last been reading before she’d jumped in her seat on hearing Levi’s voice.

“Here I thought you were confused who I was for a moment.”

Hanji says as she ignores answering Levi ‘s question.

“Finally come to it have we, sir Corporal? How ya feeling?”

Levi sits up, more slowly than he anticipated even for himself. His head is pounding. But he doesn’t know if that’s from whatever wound is the reason his brow is wrapped in bandages or it’s because it was Hanji’s annoying and boisterous voice that he’s had to hear first thing. Levi touches at the gauze, feeling his hair peeking out in places. So it must not be too serious, this wound.

“How long have I been out?”

Hanji sits back down, humming thoughtfully.

“Around three or four days?”

Hanji is snickering behind her hand.

“Your head wound isn’t all that serious, just a scrape and you were knocked out for a bit. I bet the bruise is stellar! You’ve been through worse so I’m rather surprised for how long you slept. Taking pointers from Eren? Oh, speaking of Eren… perhaps your ailment isn’t physical?”

Levi doesn’t say anything in reply, just looking at the blankets bunched over his lap as Hanji jabbers on.

“…and perhaps it’s not about here either.”

Hanji taps to her head.

“But here?”

Before tapping against her breast.

Levi is scowling.

“Oh? You have one of those, shitty glasses?”

“My my! Is that any way to be speaking to me? I, who’s going to tell you what you’ve been dying~ to hear~ practically! What was it you said on first waking? Ah, that’s right.”

Hanji flips her chair around, sitting on it backwards so she can rest her arms along the top.

Levi is tempted to break her glasses, his patience at his limit. About to leave this bed and go see himself, where Eren is but Hanji speaks again. Loves to talk.

“About Eren. He’s the one that’s been looking after you this whole while~ poor thing feels really responsible for what happened that night! Though I suppose it _really_ was _all_ his fault you got like this. He kept insisting that too. And insisting he can handle taking care of you. He’s barely had any sleep and he’s just been whisked away by Commander Erwin. Gettin’ that belated scolding since everything’s been sorted. That’s why I’m here instead. I understand you must be super disappointed haha!”

Levi is almost surprised when Hanji spares a moment to take a breath. Speaking a mile a minute.

“Jeeze, really… it’s not like you two to switch places? If I recall it’s usually Eren who’s stuck in bed and you getting a lecture, right Levi?”

Levi tries to get out of bed.

“Stop stop stop! Your Doctor’s orders are to stay in bed. Would it interest you to know I’m not speaking of the Survey Corps’ physician but your own personal one? Or would you prefer it if I call Eren your nurse?”

If his legs didn’t feel so weak from being asleep for so long, he would have surely retaliated for Hanji’s teasing with not a sharp foul word, but a sharp swift kick.

Hanji relents her teasing. Going on to tell Levi in more detail what had happened.

That night.

Eren had partially transformed into a titan to protect Levi. 

He’d used the flesh and the bones (very exciting! She was wondering if Levi could get in danger again so maybe this time she’d get to see it? Please?) to shield Levi from the bullets of the gun that’d been shot. Or least, he’d tried. The first bullet had nicked over Levi’s head. Causing some bleeding, but nothing too bad. The second bullet would have killed him for sure if Eren had not extended his titan hand to cover Levi. They weren’t so dumb in the end then, their attackers. You have a higher chance of killing your target if you shoot twice, so always shoot twice.

Unfortunately, trying to shield Levi quickly, and still not being able to control his titan powers all too well. Eren had accidentally hit Levi’s head, knocking him out. Barely making it over to him in time to catch him with his still mainly human body. To make sure Levi didn’t hit the ground. With Levi heavy in his arms, Eren had sunk to his knees. He then took further measures to protect the both of them. The flesh of his titan form expanding, the bones creaking. He’d caged them both up in that hot mess. It sure was a good thing that Commander Erwin had been heading back to their hotel. And had all that personnel at hand! They blocked off the street, quietly as they could. Before anyone woke, before anyone else took this not much taken street (the building nearby a business gone out of business how lucky was that? Rumored to be haunted, great to put in the papers instead of Survey Corps Special Experiment Soldier Eren Yeager turns into a titan! Err, kinda…) 

Those people who’d attacked them; the Survey Corps had taken into custody. Rather than be taken by the military police, who would surely turn them over to their buyer. Once the trust had been there as but a thread- cut and severed with the reality at hand. Asking them to kill Humanity’s Strongest Soldier had been a lot, but a titan too? They were crazy, not insane. They’d said. Hanji liked that answer.

They weren’t bad kids, Hanji said. They cooperated with them well enough when they’d been interrogated. Eren insisting at least, the girl he’d been fighting against, Nifa, wasn’t a bad person. She could have killed him when he’d been transforming but she didn’t. It was funny because she said the same thing about Eren. How he could have slit her throat, or crushed her, to ensure she wouldn’t get in his way. But he’d spared her and had only wanted to protect his comrade. She could relate.

After much consideration and Hanji speaking to Erwin. Erwin had allowed Hanji to pass what she’d been thinking. Since Levi has a squad, why don’t she have one too! Hanji’s Squad! Isn’t that so cool? They’d have to go through some training (hers) before they could join them on the upcoming expedition but for the meanwhile they were pretty fine as they are. Since they’d been underground this whole while, they’re bursting with curiosity! A curiosity like hers! She has much to teach them. One is even almost as blind as she! She’d lent him a spare pair of goggles, since his were broken in the fight right… his name Seiss? Siss? Sess? Whatever he’d been mumbling, was pretty interested in the nature of the surface, and that Kenji? Keiji? Kiji? guy seemed pretty strong and Nifa was sure a cutie wasn’t she? And they all agreed. What had given Hanji the idea to enlist them… was how they spoke of what they saw that night. Eren’s transformation. Titans. That which roams the world outside the world they’ve yet to know. Terrifying. Fascinating. Interesting.

Who knew she’d find such of her kin from where someone like Levi had come from! The world sure was a funny place wasn’t it? How come Levi wasn’t like that?

Hanji continues.

Ignoring Levi’s twitching leg beneath the blankets.

It really was a good thing Commander Erwin had found them.

Eren would not have been coaxed out of his transformation otherwise, and time is never on their side.

Any person that got too close to Eren’s titan flesh had to deal with the heat, avoid the bones that launched out, snapping back into the flesh, under the only somewhat covering skin. Most of it all just oozing, steaming meat. The blood slicking the ground and making it hard to walk. The smell terrible. The temperature unbearable. But Erwin had went. Hacking away, dodging, calmly, collected, as he approached. Commanding. For Levi to come out. And when Levi had said nothing, Erwin had commanded it of Eren. If Corporal Levi is in a state where he is unfit to answer orders and thus order Eren, then it is Commander Erwin that Eren has to obey.

Levi is scowling again.

“What did you expect Levi?”

Hanji says on seeing such a familiar expression.

“I heard you got pretty drunk that night. Haha, I don’t blame you. We were all pretty ready to marry Eren ourselves when we were done! Almost didn’t send him off to you~”

Hanji clears her throat. 

“Anyway, hearing Erwin wasn’t enough. Erwin had managed to make Eren stop attacking them, and Eren had even moved some of the titan flesh! Ah dammit I wish had seen this! Erwin could then see Eren but but but! Eren still refused to come out! Or respond! How stubborn! He was just gripping onto you so hard!”

Hanji is hugging herself tightly to make a point as she goes on.

“As if to say ‘Stay back! This is mine!’ is how Erwin described it. Glaring all the while! You know how murderous Eren’s glare is, though I suppose you of all people aren’t on the receiving end all too much. You should be kinder about how you treat your wife ya’know? Such a strict, possessive husband might make Eren want a divorce~ Ah-ah- alright sorry, sorry I’ll stop joking, don’t break my glasses Levi I don’t have a spare anymore!”

Hanji adjusts her bent glasses, watching Levi’s hands cautiously.

“Given that as it was… Erwin decided to show Eren his key. He figured something familiar would draw him back to his senses. And it worked! The titan flesh soon dissolved… and then you two were free to be picked up! Yay! Eren was completely exhausted when the two of you got brought into HQ but he still hounded the doctors, insisting they let him stay. That kid… right after changing and barely having a bite to eat, he went to be by your side.”

Hanji is laughing to herself.

“Oh whaaaaat kind of unrepentant look is he giving Commander Erwin right now for disrupting his time watching over you? Doncha wanna know? I’m pretty curious! It’s so amusing! We’d thought you’d disciplined him through and through but it doesn’t seem like it carries any benefits except towards you Levi.”

Levi thinks over what Hanji has told him. More determined than ever to get the fuck out of bed and hurry to where Eren is, to assure him, to be with him. Whatever crap Erwin has to say (Levi knows for sure the lecture that awaits him will be more taxing than the one he’s giving Eren) can wait. Levi just needs to see Eren. Hold him. Eren who’d been so afraid for him and looked over him (like Levi has done for him) even after protecting him- Eren who is just doing his duty, repaying a debt he feels for the many times Levi has done such for him already.

Levi starts to move out from the blankets. Hanji pushes him back, telling him he best stay put. Levi not doing so, even when she reminds it’s at Eren’s behest, (but Levi is the one who gives the orders) his… wife’s request! Ignoring Hanji. Levi pauses when he feels not a familiar weight on his chest. He reaches up to feel for his locket. 

Levi sits back onto his bed.

His locket…

It’s gone.

Levi looks about the bed, over to the nightstand- a pitcher of water, a basin of water and towel prepared there. Looks to the table behind the chair Hanji sits, where thick patched fabric, needle and thread are strewn about. A large basket. As he slept Eren had been working on his clothes had he? Levi looks to his wardrobe where his restored and laundered suit is hanging, the closet where his uniform is-

Where.

Where is it?

Levi looks over to his unwelcomed visitor.

“Hanji. Have you seen-”

Levi sees an empty chair.

Hanji has risen from her seat, not paying attention to him as he had her. Talking about getting them something to eat. The door half open and her half out of it. That book she’s been reading still in hand. She turns her head around to peer back into the room to tell him… maybe for him a meal can wait. He was just going to pick at whatever she brought up anyway wasn’t he. Surely he’d prefer a meal cooked by his wife? Levi would have broken her glasses for this joke done over as if to compensate his absence… if it’d not been for the distance. And what else Hanji goes on to say-

“Here comes your better half!”

Hanji exits, speaking for a moment out in the corridor, to explain Levi is awake and-

She closes the door behind Eren who rushes in. Not bothering with it himself as he’s typically thoughtful on doing every time he comes into Levi’s room. To repair his clothes. To assist Levi in some task. Thoughtful to close the door like when he enters his office, a tray of hot tea at hand prepared for the long day and longer night. Not this time.

At first it seems Eren will fling himself over Levi’s bedside.

Instead.

Eren gathers himself, salutes.

His hair a mess, his beloved uniform not as orderly as he’s typically careful about. Eren has made sure to bathe even if he is looking in need of a meal. Sleep. His eyes tired but alight on seeing Levi awake, alive. All this Levi notices. Focusing on what jumps against Eren’s chest with his hurried movement… Eren’s white winged locket. Levi sucks in a breath, suddenly dizzy. He blames his injury, not allowing himself to be taken by this dangerous bout of happiness though he feels it to the tips of his fingers, his fingers that wish to brush through Eren’s hair, caressing down against his cheek-

What Eren has to say to him,

“Good morning, Corporal Levi!”

It is not morning.

And it is not merely because Levi has just woke that Eren has said such a phrase. Eren had remembered what Levi had told him, warned him, scolded him about, that next should they meet Eren should greet him as such. Not all going to his plan, with Erwin’s interference. The ball. The fight.

Levi doesn’t suppose he can be hung over. He replies in turn,

“Good morning to you too Eren.”

Instead of seeing a smile as Levi would have liked, Eren is all nerves as usual. Frowning. Concerned. He pulls up that chair Hanji had been sitting on, closer and turns it back as it should be- to Levi’s bedside. Eren sits. A docile Levi is not familiar with to his motions, his sudden quiet. Eren is thinking, looking away from Levi.

Just moments before Levi had been ready, damn his somewhat state of undress, his wounds, his appearance overall that had to be hidden for the sake of kept morale and to prevent talk or some other bullshit he doesn’t give a fuck about. He’d wanted to find Eren. Take him into his arms as Eren had to him, only differently. Only finally. Levi (given how good a job Eren had done) wishing he’d ordered Eren to bid him good morning with not only words from his mouth but also a touch of his lips. 

“How is your body doing?” Levi asks.

Eren looks up in alarm.

“Oh! Uhm, sir rather I should be asking you-”

Levi cuts Eren off, curt.

“I’m fine. I didn’t turn into a titan out on the goddamn streets. Answer my question. Eren.”

Eren looks ashamed, conflicted.

“…yes sir. I am well.”

Levi is also frowning. Over how thin Eren is. Already slim in too many places before.

Levi looks.

At Eren’s soft mouth, his hands folded in his lap. After being reprimanded in such a harsh fashion right off the bat, Eren’s gaze is away but downcast. Levi can see how long Eren’s eyelashes are at this angle. Be it that Levi has not said much, but for once Eren doesn’t seem to be trembling. The soap he’s used is familiar. Levi can smell it. Wants to press his mouth to Eren’s cheek, his neck and feel and taste, inhale it and Eren’s scent. 

Levi lets his gaze wander more. The room too quiet all too sudden. All but for the sound of his heartbeat. Eren’s sudden sigh as he absentmindedly touches at his locket. The locket no longer beneath his clothes. Just because he’d come to see Levi? But Eren hadn’t known he was awake until he’d met Hanji at the doorway. Had Eren been wearing his locket out on his person this whole time? Like he had at the ball- did he fiddle and sigh with it as he hoped Corporal Levi would wake soon? Did he think if he no longer kept it hidden beneath his clothes, such a wish would be granted? It seems like something Eren would do. Eren who’d put all those embroidered patterns for good health and protection on his Corporal’s clothes.

Levi wants to grab Eren’s wrist and stop him from touching that locket he so likes. Levi wants to kiss Eren’s hand, the fingertips to the knuckles, the palm, wants Eren to touch his face and murmur his name, wants to take his loose clothing off and kiss him all over- did it feel like an eternity? Those days he’d slept and it’d been Eren waiting for him, not the other way around? 

Levi’s eyes move back to Eren’s mouth as he worries a bottom lip. Levi thinking about how worried Eren had been over when he’d wake up, if he’ll wake up. How lonely his Eren must have been without him. Levi feels himself start to grow hard beneath what he hopes is enough blankets.

Levi’s eyes draw up to Eren’s when he hears-

“Corporal Levi.”

An earnest stare upon him.

Levi has to bite back a breath from Eren looking at him so straightforwardly.

The boldness of it fleeting, jumbled about Eren’s next statement.

“What I wanted to speak to you about… what I meant before we were attacked sir.”

Eren turns from him, his beautiful golden gaze flickering to his actions as he rummages about one of his pockets, taking out-

Another locket.

The black winged locket, what Levi thought had been missing.

Eren holds it out to him.

“I’m very sorry sir. Not only did I disobey your orders and… harmed you in my failed transformation… when I went to you… our lockets got tangled. And… in order for you to get treatment as quickly as possible I had to untangle the lockets, but in my haste… I broke your locket.”

Levi takes back his locket. 

“It looks fine.”

Eren nods.

“Uhm, we’ve had it fixed since then but…”

Eren’s expression is pained, embarrassed and forlorn. As if he doesn’t know what… doesn’t know how to say what it is he has to say next. Eren is not typically easy about words (unless he’s talking about titans, killing them). Levi understands. Yet from how Eren is speaking there’s something more. Was it not only the chain that broke… but, what else?

Cold and unnerving is the panic he feels, that like he’d felt in the alley when Eren had reached for him. It overtakes him as Levi listens to what else Eren has to say. Words Eren has been thinking over a while already. For days.

“Please forgive me Corporal Levi. Because I broke the locket- what was inside the locket fell out. And though it was not my place… I was curious. So I looked at… the photo you had folded inside it.”

Levi looks at the locket in his open hand. Resting on his lap. His thumb presses against the clasp so the locket may open. The photo he’d folded in it is still inside. His photo of Eren. Eren smiling like he almost never has for him. His treasure. His secret. That Eren cannot find out about. That Eren can’t know. Eren who is at his side out of respect, duty, necessity. It’d not been from that alleyway that humans who are monsters had come; but this whole while, at Eren’s side one had been- coveting him and looking at him in such a hungry manner.

What coldness Levi had felt is heat. A fire to his bones, atop his skull, eating at him, picking at him. His heart cinders and ash as he tries to think. What he’d decided he’d do if this ever happened- if Eren ever found out. But Eren was never supposed to find out and this charade was supposed to continue on and on and on even after they’d eradicated all the titans from this world. Continue, until Levi died or Eren went off to get married to someone he does love. That someone that Eren will take the time to patch up their clothes. Eren’s coloured thread adorning them in his prayer for his lover’s good health. His affection. His concern. Someone else who will get to taste his home cooking. Someone else who will talk to him until he falls to sleep. Someone else who he will do the chores with. Someone else who will take up sword with him and protect him. Someone he can laugh with, cry with. That someone who’ll know what it will feel like to hold Eren and kiss him, make love to him, _live with him._ Having all of Eren’s warmth and smiles for themselves… as Levi thinks this, turning the thought over hollowly inside himself, ravenously, jealously- the fire turns to dust and smoke.

Sharply, Levi glances up when he hears the clink of metal.

Eren is undoing the clasp around his neck to his locket.

Levi is cold once more.

Not night yet, evening in the distance. The room scarlet. The sun is only setting but to Levi, within him, it is as dark as it’d been before. That where he has come from is all that remains. Before he’d dreamt that dream; the fringes of, catching and taunting about his memory as he watches Eren take off his locket, slowly, taxingly. A dream from a memory. Levi recalls how Eren had smiled at him, so happy to receive a gift from him, his praise. His thank you.

Levi wants to give Eren another gift.

Levi wants to give it to Eren.

If Eren is going to give him back the locket then Levi has to give him something else wouldn’t he, won’t he, he has to, he must. If Eren had been speaking with Commander Erwin before- probably, certainly Eren had told Erwin about Levi’s locket. What had been in the locket, what he’d seen, what he’d worried about, what it could mean. Eren frightened and scared. Asking Commander Erwin to protect him because Corporal Levi can’t be fit to look after him anymore, not if- not when he- not since Corporal Levi harbours these disgusting feelings for him. 

Corporal Levi is always looking at him.

Eren would have chalked it up before as Levi needing to keep a close eye on him, as is his job, his duty, only half recognising what those gazes were. What those slight touches meant. What those drawn out pauses had been. 

But now that Eren _knows_ -

Eren will never want to see him again.

The idea this is the last time Eren will ever come near to him, be close to him.

Levi can’t bear it.

He could hold him down. One time would do. One kiss would do. It would serve Eren right, for caring for him. For looking at him with those pretty eyes of his. For calling out to him in that adorable voice, ‘Corporal!’. Always making sure Levi is comfortable, worrying over every detail. His well being. Always telling him yes so readily. Those few smiles he’d been able to covet.

If Eren is so worried about him he should take care of this then. Levi’s cock is hard, getting harder with every second Eren remains near him. If Eren wants to take care of him so badly then he should just spread his legs and let Levi have his way with him. 

Before he gives him back his locket and leaves him. 

Levi could finally fuck Eren, if he doesn’t get to make love to him. If Eren won’t stay beside him. If he can’t have Eren in his gaze. If Eren won’t look at him, to him anymore. He could cum inside Eren. No one else has ever before. Eren could be his, just this once, just for now, just one time. Just tonight. Before Erwin found someone else more befitting to look after Eren. Even though Eren is his, even though only he can look after Eren; even though Eren is alive because of him, even though no one else is strong enough- Levi could have to himself his sweet Eren.

Eren would grip his fingers hard to his bedding, probably cry, begging Levi to stop, calling for help when Levi can’t, won’t. Eren trembling against him, his face all covered in tears as Levi enters him over and over finally making Eren all and only his. Eren turning his face away when Levi shuts him up by kissing him. Shoving his tongue in Eren’s mouth, feeling Eren’s tongue, his teeth. His small sighs and sobs as he doesn’t want it. He doesn’t want this other gift Levi has for him. He doesn’t want Levi.

He doesn’t want this locket.

“Please take my locket Corporal Levi.”

Levi could.

Levi can’t.

Eren is peering over at his face. Levi unable to look at Eren, only at the locket being held to him. The locket Eren had wanted.

Eren who is pleading.

His Eren- too beautiful, too warm, too good for him.

“It is only fair sir. Since I looked into what you had in your locket… for you to see what I carry in mine.”

Levi moves slowly. Closing his locket, setting it aside on the nightstand. Hating himself, despising himself, for enjoying their hands touching but a moment when he takes up Eren’s locket. He doesn’t deserve to touch Eren, to look at him. Not when he’d wanted- when he still wants to- 

Levi looks from Eren’s imploring eyes to his worried, parted mouth. 

Levi opens up Eren’s locket.

There’s something folded in this locket as well.

Levi wishes Eren hadn’t bothered.

That second bullet that should have killed him would have been a more merciful death than this.

In Eren’s locket…

If Levi has to see who it is that Eren really holds in his heart, who Eren really loves, who Eren had chosen as ‘what he likes’ to put in his locket. Levi doesn’t think he’ll survive this. He’s survived enough inside the walls and outside the walls but this-

“Please, sir.”

Eren is looking at him. 

Levi takes out the folded paper.

Unfolding it.

It’s a sketch.

The drawing style is familiar. He knows it, and while it seems a bit romanticized which isn’t unusual for her- 

What the sketch is of.

Levi’s eyes widen.

It’s him.

What is in Eren’s locket is a picture of Levi.

Levi feels Eren’s hand fold over his hand still holding the locket, lying against the mattress of the bed. 

Eren speaks.

“Since we found that camera one day when we’d been cleaning, I had asked Squad Leader Hanji if she could do me a favour. It was a selfish request but she tried to do it anyway. I had asked her… if she could get your picture for me sir.”

Eren’s voice is resolute.

“I wanted your picture more than anything. But, I was too much of a coward to try and get it for myself. Ms Hanji said you just weren’t very photogenic and so couldn’t get me a photo. She felt bad about it she said, so she drew me a picture of you instead. I think it’s a rather close likeliness. What do you think, Corporal Levi?”

Eren’s hand is trembling over his.

And Levi realises. Eren had not trembled before him on account of his fear, his anxiety but rather-

Eren holds his other hand over his face, to prevent Levi from seeing the tears that fall and stream over his cheeks. Dripping onto his lap. Eren’s hand still trembles but he grips onto Levi’s hand not likely to let go. This hand he’d reached for and wanted it held over his. 

And still he speaks, though his voice begins to quiver.

“I’m so happy sir… I’m too happy… that this whole time my feelings for you are the same as the feelings you have for me…”

Eren moves his hand away from his face and Levi gets to see it, a smile Eren has never shown to anyone else before.

“That we have been one in thought this whole while. Truly, I have nothing to fear when you are by my side.”

Levi has wanted Eren.

And Eren has wanted Levi in return.

Levi folds up the sketch. Putting it back inside Eren’s locket. He closes the locket. Drawing up the chain. Eren leans towards him. Allowing Levi to put the locket back on him. Levi slides a hand over one of Eren’s wet cheeks, cupping Eren’s face, his thumb stroking over the soft skin there before Eren rises and gathers up Levi’s locket from the nightstand. Eren climbs into Levi’s bed and sits before the Corporal, on his knees, his legs spread. Levi shudders as Eren bends forward to wrap the chain of his locket around his neck, fixing the clasp as well. Sitting back, Eren tapping his fingers to each other as he looks at his work.

“Before I left for the ball I went to the jewelry shop. I was so mad sir. I had wanted to get this other locket for you since you’d gotten me one. But they told me it had already been sold. I had no idea you had bought them both.”

Eren draws closer to Levi.

“You said that Commander Erwin planned all of that at the ball, but I asked him myself. He didn’t order you to get me this locket sir. You bought it… for me yourself… didn’t you Corporal?”

Eren is touching at the locket around his neck, lovingly, fondly. A softer clutch to it than the times Levi had teased to take it back.

Levi pictures Eren returning from town in a huff, kicking at furniture in those red heels while everyone dressed him up for the ball and told him to stay still for the make-up. Eren scowling the whole while. Levi coughs back a laugh, low in his throat. All laughter dead as Eren draws a hand up to Levi’s cheek as the other hand ventures up to his hair. Touching at the bandages there. Eren’s soft smile fading as he looks in concern. Desolate at his failure and their consequences. Levi wants to kiss that frown away. He pulls at Eren’s wrist, kissing his fingers, his palm as he’d imagined earlier. Eren’s fingers curling. Eren trying to pull his wrist away, suddenly shy.

Before Eren can start his usual round of apologies Levi grabs at Eren’s hips greedily, drawing him over to sit on his lap. Eren is startled and throws his arms over his shoulders. Levi’s face thus pulled close to Eren’s chest. 

“Oh? Is this how you held onto me while you were playing hero? Eren.”

Within that cage of titan flesh, as Eren protected him. Their lockets tangled around the other.

Eren’s face is bright scarlet even with the sun near set.

“No sir. It was more like this.”

Levi feels Eren’s hands at the back of his head, in his hair. As Eren brings Levi’s face to rest at his breast. Cupping the back of his head, his neck, tenderly. Cradling him to him. Eren’s arms are around him. Eren careful not to place his chin, his cheek to the top of Levi’s head. Where the bruise is. Eren kisses at the spot gently. His breath scaping over his scalp. Levi draws his hips up to press against Eren. Eren’s softness and weight over him.

Eren is so cute.

Levi can’t take it anymore.

Levi can hear it. Eren’s heartbeat, rapid like his.

He latches his grip firmer over Eren’s hips and grinds him down against his lap. Levi groans as Eren’s soft ass is pushed over his erection. Even through the fabric of clothing, the blankets. It still feels good. Eren feels so good, will feel even better once Levi is inside him. Levi is shaking at the idea; startled he can’t control himself as he thinks about entering Eren. Eren atop of him. Eren shy and flushed and wanting him- taking his cock inside him-

Eren draws back from him, warning. 

“Please wait a moment! You are not yet fully healed!”

Levi’s response is quick.

“As if I give a fuck. I’m fine. Eren, if you think it’s not good, why don’t you kiss it better?”

Eren is abashed then-

“Understood sir.”

Then Eren is lowering himself, inching out of his lap. Bending his face close to Levi’s. His cheeks flushed and his gaze half lidded, closed. Levi leans over to meet him. Their hands clasping over the other’s as they’d not been able before during the fight. Levi thought he’d go mad at the prospect of Eren not becoming his but he feels he will go mad even now, delirious with his desire for Eren as Eren himself claims to be Levi’s. Drawing closer to him so he’s pressing his body more tightly against Levi’s. Levi inhales Eren’s scent, the different soap Eren has used since the last time… Levi finally recognises why it’s so familiar. It’s the same fragrance of the soap he uses.

Eren kisses Levi softly on the lips, his eyes shut. Levi watches intensely, fascinated, wanting, as Eren draws back breathlessly to kiss him again, another kiss and another, too gently, like Levi might break. Eren’s gentleness on account of Levi’s injury. On account of Eren is adorable. Eren’s eyes shut all the while as he kisses him more- Eren, his sleeping beauty, his princess. Levi is so hard.

Levi ain’t gunna break.

The both of them aren’t alive today because they’re weak.

Levi presses his mouth against Eren’s. Shutting his eyes as he runs a tongue over Eren’s bottom lip. The lip Eren worries on almost as much as he worries about Levi. Levi bites and sucks at it before kissing Eren on the mouth, which parts for him with a surprised gasp. Levi groans. Eren is so sweet, soft, and warm- welcoming and compliant to him. Levi moves his hands from Eren’s, over his arms, gripping his shoulders, holding him in place as he kisses him. Eren’s hands pressed, stuck between their chests.

Eren’s tongue meeting his. Eren gasping some more when Levi is insistent, hungry. Levi can feel Eren is trembling. Eren trying to get closer to him, even when they’re close already so much. Not enough. Not yet. Their mouths part. Eren reaches forward to kiss him again before kissing at his chin, nipping it. Levi lies back against his pillows. Eren places his hands flat against Levi’s chest, feeling the fabric there, the hard muscle beneath. Stroking. Sighing. Eren moves down his body with every touch. Slowly. Torturously. Levi grabs at Eren’s hand, coaxing him to touch him, touch his stomach beneath the fabric of his shirt. Eren’s fingertips skim over his hot skin, his tough flesh. Eren is ecstatic.

“Corporal… every time you had me work on your clothes. I couldn’t get over how hard your body is.”

Levi places a hand in Eren’s soft hair, fisting. Eren’s locks between his fingers, beneath his touch, as Eren moves above him, kissing not only his lips.

“My stomach ain’t the only thing that’s hard, Eren.”

Eren lies down, caged between his legs. The blankets long pushed aside. Gotten to where he’d wanted to go. Undoing the ties of Levi’s sweatpants. Eren pulls down the fabric and those of the undergarments to free Levi’s hard cock. Levi watches intensely as Eren starts to stroke him, shy and hesitant at first. Touching, caressing his balls. Levi shudders as Eren kisses and licks at his balls then slides his tongue against his shaft up to the tip. Levi stares in disbelief as Eren bends over to take the head into his mouth, watching as Eren closes his eyes, the long eyelashes he loves against Eren’s full cheeks as he tries to fit Levi in. Licking and sucking at him ravenously. Slowly inching him in. A soft wet heat. Eren’s mouth that he’s imagined putting his dick in what must have been hundreds of times. His cock being sucked on and sighed around. Eren who is always trying his best for him. Trying his best for him in even this.

But Eren lacks experience.

And Levi lacks patience.

Eren is really too cute.

Levi moves, jutting up his hips to thrust his cock deeper inside Eren’s mouth, down his throat. Eren is startled and unprepared for him. Opening his mouth wider so Levi has an easier time, breathing heavily through his nose; from around Levi’s cock as Levi plunges it inside Eren over and over whilst gripping his hair. Levi moaning when teeth catch. Eren trying to suck him off while taking as much of him in his mouth as he can. Eren’s lips are rubbed raw and red. Levi wants to cum, but he can’t. For Eren’s first time, for his first time with Eren- while he should cum inside Eren it should be in that plump ass of his that Levi has copped a feel not as many times as he’d liked.

Levi pulls Eren’s head back. Eren’s saliva dripping from his plundered mouth to around Levi’s hard shaft. Poking his dick against Eren’s soft cheek. Eren moves to kiss and lick at his dick. Eren’s eyes moist and his look downcast like it’d been when he’d been touching at his locket. Eren’s locket, its cool metal had bumped, slid aside his fevered skin as Eren journey down him, before taking him around him in his mouth. Levi tempted just to hell with it all. How much prettier his Eren could get with his cum smeared over his mouth as he licks it up and swallows it down- before Levi is tempted any further he pulls Eren up to him. Embracing him. Trying to kiss him. But Eren pushes him away, flustered. Eren rises from him, off the bed, to rinse his mouth, drinking from the glass on the nightstand. He pours water from the pitcher into. Drinking and having Levi follow suit. 

A lantern is lit. The glass on the nightstand. Eren returns to Levi. Lying atop him, his legs back around Levi’s hips. Levi wrapping Eren in his arms. Eren leans forward to kiss him, a grin on his reddened lips all the while. Sweetly, just for him. Eren whimpers as Levi sucks at his tongue, bites at his lips and down his neck.

Levi gropes down Eren’s body, forcing a hand down Eren’s trousers, feeling his hard and wet cock. Levi starts to pump Eren, stroke him, enjoying how Eren’s body shakes and how pink his pretty soft skin is. Hot and sweaty against his own. But Eren shakes his head. His hand folding over Levi’s that is touching him. A fist to his mouth, as if he’s surprised by the high keening noise that had started to come out from it. When Levi had started to touch him. Eren is sensitive and tender in so many places, almost all the places Levi puts his hands on.

“Please hold on sir. Not yet.”

Levi isn’t so ready to relent, but Eren has sit up, back. Reaching to pull his shirt off. He starts to pull down his trousers, taking off the rest of his clothes. A messy pile on the floor he will be scolded about later but not presently. Not when he’s bare, flushed and trembling, ready to be fucked like in all of Levi’s fantasies. Levi looks over Eren’s bare body. Bare all but for the gold locket around his neck. Eren waiting to be touched and taken by him. The tip of his wet cock bumps against Eren’s soft ass as Eren hovers above him, his thick thighs about his hips, boxing him in. Levi touches at Eren’s flat breasts, rubbing at his hard nipples until they’re harder beneath the tips of his fingers. Eren whimpering and touching at his wrists, the locket bumps against Levi’s hand. Levi presses a thumb against one of Eren’s nipples, wants to take it between his teeth. Reaches. Does. Eren cries out when he bites too hard. Levi wants his cock inside Eren already.

Eren helps Levi out of his shirt and the rest of his half pulled at clothing. It all joins Eren’s mess on the floor. Eren straddles him. Levi can feel his cock is wedged between the cheeks of Eren’s soft ass as Eren sits back against him, sighing. Eren’s hands splayed against his chest as he leans forward to kiss Levi on the cheek, a hand on Levi’s locket, over his heart. Eren’s mouth is parted, a breath before Levi doesn’t think he can stand it anymore. Levi kisses Eren on the mouth. His cock harder, and taller against Eren’s ass as he feels Eren’s tongue against his own. Eren moaning into his mouth, his not as toned stomach atop his. Levi feels Eren start to roll his hips, rutting his ass back on Levi’s dick. 

When Levi moves to position himself against Eren’s tight hole-

“Ah! Please wait a moment sir.”

Eren draws back from him yet again. To Levi’s annoyance. The rest of his patience unraveling as Eren leaves him, swinging his legs over the bed. Remembering something forgotten. Levi watching Eren’s wide swaying hips all the while, along with Eren’s well groped and red in places, ass. Levi doesn’t bother to hold back his groan as he watches Eren bend over. Eren’s ass in the air as he reaches on the table to where his sewing materials lay within the basket atop it- holding not only thread, fabric, needles, scissor and thimble. But also dried flowers, bottles of medicine, fruit and- Eren digs until he finds a small glass bottle. Seemingly at the bottom, tied up in a square of white fabric that Levi is somehow familiar with. Unwrapped from it, that fabric left to hang over the side of the basket as Eren crawls back into bed with him, Levi realises that white fabric is one of his spare cravats.

“Corporal Levi.”

Eren starts, nicely sitting on Levi’s lap again. Eren’s legs spread.

“I would like to use this.”

Eren holds the bottle between them, half full, half empty. Given what they’re doing, about to do, it can only be one thing.

“I will prepare myself with it and you as well if you don’t mind sir. I’ve used it from time to time, and I think it feels good. Perhaps you will agree with me.”

Levi looks from the bottle to Eren’s earnest and flushed face.

So this is the lube Eren likes to slick himself up with when-

“Ah? So this isn’t your first time Eren? Who else have you let between your legs then?”

Eren is confused.

Then in appalled shock says rather horrified-

“You misunderstand me Corporal Levi!”

Eren fidgets before him with what appears to be much difficulty to come to words.

Levi has no such difficulty demanding them.

“What? If you’re gunna say something spit it out already.”

Eren leans over upon Levi, bearing down upon him, insistent that Levi believe him to every word.

“Sir! I have never had intercourse with anyone before! Merely… sometimes… when I thought of you I… I wanted to think about what it’d be like…”

Levi is burning. His palms slick with sweat. He knew what Eren had meant from the start but he’d wanted to tease Eren. Wanted to eradicate any tiny twisted disgusting doubt from himself. Wanted to savour it all to himself. The vision Eren makes out to him of touching himself while thinking about him. All those times Eren had been too alluring, Eren had wanted a good night kiss- so it’d not just been Levi who’d thought Eren wanted it. Eren did want it. Eren wants it. Eren wants him.

Levi doesn’t understand mercy, not when Eren has been so merciless towards him.

“Like what? If you don’t say plainly what you want Eren you’re not gunna get it.”

As if he has any room to talk.

Levi feels himself grow bigger beneath Eren’s soft inviting ass as Eren replies, much quieter than his indignant tone of before.

“…I wanted… I want to know what it’s like if… if you are to fuck me sir.”

Levi looks.

As Eren is spilling the lube over his fingers, reaching back to slick Levi’s cock up, a thumb on the tip. Eren moaning eagerly, almost pained on feeling how hard and big he’s gotten. Eren is wetting his fingers more, still warm from touching, pumping Levi’s throbbing cock- but before he can move his hand back to touch himself- 

Levi grabs at his wrist.

“No. Eren. I’m going to do it.”

Levi interlocks their fingers about the other, slicking up his fingers in such a fashion. Eren leans forward atop of him to make it easier for him to reach down. Levi’s knuckles skimming over the top of the fat flesh of Eren’s trembling ass before he probes and feels up to where Eren’s hole is. His teeth grind down, his jaw clenches as he eases his fingers inside. Eren clutching onto him, Eren’s mouth open and gasping before his as Levi pushes his fingers inside him. Levi can feel Eren’s breath, hot and heavy, like it is in him. Levi feels around, twisting his fingers, slicking Eren up.

Levi watches as Eren’s eyes flutter open and shut, watches the way his hips gyrate back so Levi’s fingers get just a little bit deeper inside him. Eren is gasping and moaning in his grasp, whimpering and pleading, beautiful and willing. His locket bumps down against the locket Levi wears as Levi pushes his fingers in to the furthest knuckles. Levi moves his fingers in, inching them back, enjoying seeing Eren moving back with his movement. Levi repeats these motions, staring at Eren all the while. Eren wanting to be touched by him, wanting to feel him, wanting-

“No. Please. _Please sir._ Please Corporal Levi! I want… I want-”

Eren remembering what Levi had said, always remembering and abiding- Eren who is clinging so fervently to him.

“No more. I can’t take it any longer. _Just fuck me already!_ Please!”

Levi eases his fingers out from Eren’s tight hole, groping at Eren’s ass. The sticky fingers smearing the side of one cheek.

“You want me to fuck you Eren?”

Levi settles the fingers he’d just had inside Eren possessively against that dirtied asscheek. Clenching it and squeezing the flesh there. Eren gasps sharply. Levi continues curtly.

“Too bad. I ain’t gunna do that.”

Levi’s gaze shifts from Eren’s cute ass, up his back, over the back of his chain covered neck to his parted lips. A disbelieving, desolate sigh upon them. Shifts it, to Eren’s hungry and imploring gaze. Truly, the most exquisite gold as Levi desecrates the cold of dwindled hope within them. Rekindling it to shimmering heat all again, all over, as he’s been doing even without his knowledge- with what he has to say next.

Levi draws his other hand that’s been on Eren’s hip up his body to cup his face. A thumb over Eren’s cheek, to his soft lips.

“Eren, you don’t get it. I’m not gunna fuck you. _I’m gunna make love with you._ ”

Levi positions the tip of his cock at Eren’s readied, moist hole. He pushes the tip in where his fingers had just been. Eren crying out above him as he feels Levi begin to enter him. Some of his tears dripping onto Levi’s face and his chest as Levi eases himself inside. Eren has his arms around him, is clutching to him, whimpering and moaning. Asking sweetly, crying just as so as he tries to move his ass back to take more of Levi inside him- won’t Levi come inside him further? Quicker? Deeper? Levi shudders in pleasure as he feels himself be surrounded by Eren. His tight heat, his arms, his lips as Eren bends over to kiss him on the mouth. Eren’s mouth opening to his, inviting his tongue into his mouth, letting it move in and out of him as he pleases, like Levi does with his cock to Eren’s tight asshole.

Eren’s thighs are clamped over his hips, his belly drawn over Levi’s harder one. Levi can feel Eren’s cock is rubbing between them. Eren moans, and kisses him deeply the deeper Levi pushes himself into him. His pretty Eren, his adorable Eren, his beautiful Eren, all his- wanting this and wanting him and taking him and being taken by him- Levi groans as he pushes in and out of Eren. Not wanting to go anywhere but further inside. Eren’s shocked and needy expression when Levi draws away from him and the pleasure that fleets over his face when Levi pushes back into him again, hitting against the spot inside him that is making him tremble and gasp is more than Levi can handle. Eren is more than he can handle. 

Levi said he would make love with him, but it’s becoming difficult. With all of Eren’s tempting noises and his body, eager and ready for Levi’s cock, Levi’s touch, his attention and his praise. It’s Eren’s first time so Levi should be gentle, he should be careful, controlled, restrained. But how can he? With Eren’s moist gaze on him, heated and ravenous, his hands that hold onto him so thoroughly, possessively, his lips that only seek Levi’s lips, his tight welcoming heat that only wants to suck Levi inside and keep him there- Eren is still tempting him and teasing him, taunting him, torturing him- his Eren that it feels so good to be inside, that it feels so good to be held by. His Eren who is looking at him and only him as he rides Levi’s cock, moaning and panting, wanting all of it inside him- further, more, harder, begging for it, asking for it-

Levi has to give it to him.

Levi kisses Eren on the mouth, the cheek. Moving his mouth to his neck and kissing there as well, biting and sucking as he flexes his hips up to enter Eren deeper. Eren moving to meet him, begging and in tears, it feels good he keeps telling him, he keeps saying with every tremble and sigh. As Levi kisses under Eren’s chin, Eren kisses at his brow, his fingers in his hair. Stroking and soothing, worried. The bandages starting to unravel. His Corporal shouldn’t overtax himself, he should be careful- and did it feel good for him too? Does he like it inside him? Is he warm? Is he comfortable? Is it pleasing to Corporal to be inside him like this-

Eren’s gentle fingers, his worried whispered questions, his moans and gasps- the sweat on his skin, how tightly he’s wound himself around Levi- Levi doesn’t understand how Eren can say anything like that, ask any of that when his body is so accommodating to his- so pleasing- besides, even if Levi wasn’t comfortable would Eren let him go?

Levi knows he can’t let Eren go.

Levi places a firmer grip with both his hands, over Eren’s moving hips and rolls them over.

He presses Eren against his bedding just as he’s always wanted to. Delving inside him farther, hitting up against Eren’s prostrate, over and over as he holds Eren’s hips in his hands, wondering if the bruises he leaves on them will still be there come morning. It they’re not- he’ll just have to leave some more won’t he? Or so he thinks, until he sees the tears from Eren’s eyes, dripping from them shutting close, down over his skin like the combined sweat of their linking bodies on every thrust. Levi’s heart jumps and shakes. He lessens his fevered movement, drawing back, intending to pull out from Eren before asking him if he’s alright- but Eren draws his legs up higher. The heels of his feet digging into Levi’s back. Trapping him. Bidding him to stay. Eren’s voice panicked.

“Please! Please sir! It feels so good! Don’t… don’t leave me- not again-”

Eren’s eyes are open and moist, boring upon him, pleading, miserable at the thought that Levi will be away from him even but an inch when they’ve finally gotten so close. Levi is very close.

He wants to cum. He’s wanted to cum this whole time. Since Eren touched at his locket, since Eren looked over to him, since Eren covered his face and wept. Adorable, beloved, his darling- _his Eren_ is all Levi can think of as he pushes himself back inside Eren as Eren likes. Eren’s heels encouraging him to press forward to stay. Eren who’d been lonely without him while he was away, when he is away. Eren who touches himself and thinks about Corporal Levi when he’s alone in his bed, cold without a good night kiss.

Levi pounds into him, without restraint, if this is how Eren wants it, _since this is how Levi wants to give it_ \- 

Levi bends forward to kiss Eren, moaning against Eren’s moans, sighing against his sighs. Both short of breath, panting and gasping as they get closer, draw nearer. Eren’s movement matching, reaching to Levi’s.

Eren’s fingers lace over the back of Levi’s neck, in his hair again brushing through it tenderly. The bandages fall against his wrist and onto the bedding. A hand stays within, brushing through the slick strands, and barely over the bruise Eren still frowns over. His other hand sliding down to feel Levi’s sweating back, the hard muscles that flex there as Levi buries his cock inside him.

Eren draws that hand from Levi’s hair, to across Levi’s cheek. Down, Eren draws it to press against his soft mouth that Levi feels he should not be neglecting . Eren moans, he face turning away on the pillow as he flexes his hips up against Levi’s. Levi feels Eren’s hard and dripping cock rub against his stomach. Eren draws that hand away from his mouth to Levi’s delight, getting to hear Eren better. Eren moving that hand so it is upon Levi again, his arm looping over his shoulders. To pull him closer, so Eren can move in closer, embracing him. Levi kisses him, moving to bite at his neck. Eren crying out highly. The top of Levi’s scalp hot, burning hotter than the rest of him and Eren as Levi nestles himself deep within him.

Aside the creaking of the mattress beneath them, their flesh against the other’s, every gasp and every moan- there is the metallic sound of their lockets bumping against the other’s, pleasing notes, a steady rhythm like Eren’s voice as he calls out to him.

“Corporal Levi! Corporal! _Ah!_ Corporal Levi, Levi- please, Corporal- I want, please sir, I want… I want… Ah!”

Between thrusts, his heavy breath. Levi pants.

“What Eren? What do you want?”

Eren’s breath heavy as well, like his locket on his heaving breast.

“…Corporal Levi… I want, you to cum inside me! Mm, Corporal, Corporal Levi please! _Even though I am nothing but a monster_ \- please sir, please make me feel human- even, even if it’s just this one time- even- I want-”

Eren is looking at him, that begging, imploring look. Levi’s breath is tight between his teeth, his cock buried in Eren’s tight asshole. Eren’s legs around his hips. Eren’s arms around him, clinging onto him. Eren needing him, holding onto him, wanting him- 

“What are you yammering about Eren? Greedy, and can’t shut up- ain’t that pretty human enough?”

Eren is alarmed, blinking back tears then letting them fall. Levi moans. His adorable Eren. Even though Eren had been so happy to find out their feelings are mutual, he still carries this concern. He still worries on it even as Levi takes him, wanting him all to himself- that the Corporal would be disgusted by him. Will not want to do this again with him. Still despairs over it, even though-

Some monsters are human.

Levi is determined Eren learns this lesson he’d not before.

Eren cries out as Levi pushes out and back inside him harshly, fervently, unleashing the strength he’d been holding back. Steam rises between their connected bodies, atop it. Eren clasps their hands together. Rubbing himself up against Levi fervently and gasping, his soft lips pressed to Levi’s cheek, his chin. Levi cups the back of Eren’s head with his other hand, the locks of Eren’s made messy hair between his fingers as he kisses him deeply. Draws back. Liking how Eren’s lips part, are red and tender, glossy from their mingled spit. Noting Eren’s catching his breath, his brow furrowed, his face flushed. His moist eyelashes framing that gold gaze that looks over to him and does not look away. Levi shudders. Holding Eren’s chin, he runs his thumb over Eren’s kiss swollen lips.

“Not bad. Eren. You’re all mine Eren- _Eren_ , ah Eren- I’m the only one that gets to touch ya like this, got it? I’m the only one you want to touch you like this right? I’m the only person you want to cum inside you, so _I’m the only one who’s gunna_ , Eren. My Eren- I’ll give you whatever you want- but only if you’ll become _my wife._ Decide, Eren. What is it you wanna do.”

Eren does not have a difficult time deciding his words. His answer is as it typically is in nuance if it cannot be in manner. The salute he cannot do with this engaged hands and fingers, resonates in its feeling by the tone of his voice. As clear as a bell through the silence of the night.

“Understood sir!”

Within the dark, Levi is there.

And there with him.

“My Corporal Levi. Please become my husband!”

Eren is there too.

Levi cums thickly and hotly inside Eren. Eren flexes his hips up into Levi’s, cumming as well. Over their bellies, their hands still tightly clasped to the other’s. Eren is smiling at him, kissing his face and Levi kisses Eren’s lips.

Levi rises and pushes Eren back on the bed when Eren tries to rise with him, exhausted. From before and presently, Levi tells him to rest as he moves to get that towel wet from the water on the nightstand, to clean them up a bit. Just what’s on their skin, the bedding can wait for morning. The rest of them as well. As Levi moves back onto the bed. Not before looking Eren over on it. Eren who is shivering, cold without Levi inside him or aside him. Levi doesn’t join Eren, nor does he draw back up a blanket until he’s satisfied enough at looking over what marks, bruises remain on Eren’s body from them having sex.

Eren’s body isn’t healing as quickly as it typically does. Both worrying and a satisfying that Levi chides himself over. The cum he’d ejaculated into Eren’s hole barely dripping from it even when he’d wiped it off from Eren’s thighs, on account of Eren pressing his fingers against his asshole, making sure most of the cum stays put until Levi is done cleaning his sensitive bruise fading thighs and he can close his legs. Entangling them with Levi’s legs when Levi finally joins him back on the bed. Levi drawing that blanket over them and Eren eagerly drawing himself close to Levi. Their lockets bump against the other and Eren starts to pull back in alarm, worried they’ll get tangled like the last time.

Levi isn’t having any of that, telling Eren not to worry about it as he grabs onto him and holds him close. They share a pillow. The oil in the lantern has run out. Beneath the cover of an early sunless morning, Levi feels Eren reach up and clutch at their touching lockets, still concerned. Cute, his Eren, _his wife_ \- there’d only been the sound of their evened breath but Levi can hear his heart pounding again as he thinks it over. What gold the lockets are made of, how Eren had said yes, how inside Eren- Levi had cummed- so truly, even without ceremony or written agreement- in a primal sense Eren really is his wife from here on-

Today, tomorrow and the days to be.

Even when they reach a night neither will wake from.

Levi feels Eren move in the dark.

He can see.

Still clutching the lockets.

Eren is smiling at him as he leans forward, kissing him on the lips.

“Good night, Corporal Levi.”

Levi leans towards Eren, his hand folding over Eren’s.

Is it because of the dark?

Or what Levi says next that causes Eren to comfortably close his eyes and dream of their tomorrow?

That Eren does not see Levi smiling back at him.

Levi kisses Eren in turn.

“Good night, Eren.”

\--

They sleep through most of the day and it is evening when they finally have their bath. 

However Eren sleeps through most of that too. Levi alright with lathering the both of them up for the wash, but ruining it when Eren’s sighs and sounds of pleasure at how nice the heat of the water of the bath and the Corporal’s hands feel - entice Levi too much and another bath is soon necessary in order to clean up the mess he’d made after cleaning up the first one.

Levi has to carry Eren out from the washroom, unsure where to put either of them with the bed stripped but no spare linen to put on it yet.

Dried off for the most part, Eren’s hair dark from damp. Eren reaches over to the quilt he’d been sewing and lays it over by the hearth they light. Eren lying down immediately upon his hard work, patting the spot down next to him when Levi stills, still standing. Content for the moment in his disbelief any of this is happening, to just stare as he usually does. Looking over Eren’s face and body. Eren bare all but for the locket, the only thing he’d bothered to put on. Not with the hearth lit, the door locked. Levi has managed sweat pants but figures they’re not going to last long with Eren laid out before him like this.

But before Levi can join Eren, Eren jumps back up to his feet. Gesturing to that basket of his. Taking some fruit out of it. A slight laugh Eren tries to cover with his fingers when both their stomachs grumble. They are hungry. They wash the fruit, but don’t bother to cut it despite that Levi has brought out a knife. It’d only take a few seconds with him but Eren is determined to feed him like he had to him at the ball (Levi says it’s not the same since the fruit had been cut but Eren asks Levi to please believe him, that eating the fruit in this manner is just as fine). Both sharing the same apple, the same peach, the same pear. Moving it between the two of them. Their fingers brushing, touching. Levi licks whatever juices get over Eren’s mouth, as Eren does the same to his fingers. It’s not long before the fruit is all eaten. Levi discovering Eren’s mouth is extra sweet from it. Eren warns they can’t get the quilt dirty so Levi bends Eren over the table and that’s that.

Another bath is had before more logs are added to the dwindling fire in the hearth. Though given their prolonged activity it’s not really necessary until the night returns to them. Chilling the air outside, cooling the room.

Levi finally lays aside Eren on the quilt after tidying the room, some more clothes on this time though Eren has deigned to go without given he’s been of surprisingly little help. Opting to nap in front of the fire as Levi does most of the work.

Levi would scold him… but these past few days have not been easy on Eren, and Eren’s lethargy is not only on account of the stress of looking after him while he slept but even presently.

Levi’s heart skips as Eren smiles at him as he lays aside him on the quilt.

Eren’s fingers that had been skimming over the embroidered patterns on the quilt, move over to Levi’s chest as he nestles in close to him. Another kiss to his lips. Eren’s flesh is hot from lying down by the fire, his skin smooth and soft from youth. Levi is stroking Eren’s back, moving his touch down to grope at Eren’s even softer ass, wondering how angry Eren will be with him if they have to wash this quilt too. Thinking it inevitable and if Eren really did mind then he would have bothered to put some clothes on.

That must be the case, because when Levi starts to kiss him, rolling atop of him, Eren pulls back from him to show him- spreading his legs- that he hadn’t just been sleeping. Eren has readied himself with the remaining lube for when Levi wants to enter him again. Levi does. Levi is careful that his cum doesn’t drip out from Eren even as he pulls out. And that Eren’s cum that’s gotten on the both of them is wiped away. Eren does scold him when he ventures a taste from what gets on his fingers. He kisses Eren deeply straight after. Ready to sleep another night aside Eren who can’t stop laughing or smiling at him. Radiant, pretty, cute- his Eren is all those things and more as he kisses Levi back sweetly, imploringly, asking for more and Levi wants to take Eren again but can make no more guarantees about the quilt. His control has its limits.

When he warns so, Eren merely laughs behind some of his fingers, smile a touch too coy as he has the gall to say-

“Is that so sir? Then-” Eren reaches with his other hand to touch at Levi‘s erection- “does this have its limits too?”

The tips of Eren’s fingers are digging into the tip of Levi’s cock, swollen and leaking, but not nearly as red as Eren’s thoroughly pounded ass, ready for more.

If anyone else could hear how Levi says what he says next, and not know the meaning of the words- they’d think he’s about to commit a murder.

“ _Eren._ I can give this to you for however much ya like.”

\--

Eren’s fingers are in his hair, brushing against a bruise no longer there.

Wondering over it.

In the dark, Eren’s expression is thoughtful.

The fire has dwindled away and they have only each other to keep themselves warm, which is fine enough. Eren is always warm for him, hot for him. Levi draws him closer in his embrace. Startling Eren who must have thought him asleep.

“How are you feeling sir?”

Levi rolls his hips up, buried to the hilt inside Eren. Enjoying Eren’s slight gasp at the movement, Levi turns Eren over on the quilt. Eren’s hands gripping at it as Levi reenters him from behind. Eren jutting his big ass up to take Levi’s cock inside him. Eren is moaning, gasping. As he makes new wrinkles in this quilt he’d been working on before Levi had woken up from his injury induced sleep. Levi looks from where he’s buried his cock inside Eren, down his back, the back of his neck where the chain to the locket is clinging over. The locket itself swinging beneath Eren, motion in tune to Levi’s thrusts. Levi leans forward. His locket touching Eren’s sweaty back. Levi bites at the back of Eren’s neck as he cums inside him a nth time, not ever the last time.

As they lay aside each other on the quilt, hands linked in the dark. Levi draws Eren close, looking over his body, the patterns of the quilt beneath him. How some of the elaborate designs have the images of fruit they’ve all eaten woven into the stitch.

“You really are too cute, Eren.”

Eren’s surprise at Levi’s words is not only visible but audible.

His confused sputter only further proof in Levi’s opinion.

“What do you mean by that Corporal?”

Levi reaches to grab the edge of the quilt behind Eren, drawing the quilt over him, wrapping him in it.

“You put patterns on my clothes when you are patching them up. What’s that about? Care to clue me in?”

Eren is hiding his red face at Levi’s neck.

“No way… you noticed them sir? And I tried hard to make sure they’d be in a place you wouldn’t notice…”

“Haa? Is that so. Well you did a shitty job at that then. I’d hate to think how well you played hide and seek as a brat. All the more reason to keep a close eye on you. If you think that’s hiding…”

Levi looks down in mild surprise, as Eren pulls his hotly flushed face away to say, almost annoyed. His voice louder than usual.

“It’s because! You have surprisingly good eyesight for your age sir! If you don’t mind me saying!”

Is that a pout?

Eren jumps as he feels Levi laugh but can’t see it. Levi has drawn him back into a tight embrace.

“My eye sight ain’t shit like a certain shitty glasses and you gotta see in the dark well if you’re gunna live another day in the underground. The surface ain’t so different either to be true. Got a problem Eren? Better suck it up.”

Levi draws back. He runs a thumb over Eren’s bottom lip. Contemplating if he could make Eren suck it up. Instead Levi pushes Eren down on his quilt and finally decides if they’re gunna dirty it he’s gunna make Eren be the one to do it, though Eren huffing at him isn’t at all bad either. Is what Levi is thinking about as he gets between Eren’s legs and sucks him off, before spreading the cheeks of Eren’s thoroughly touched and pampered ass and having a taste there too, biting and sucking where he pleases. Eren flushed in a manner other than anger as he moves a foot, toes uncurling from the fabric as his foot rises to brush against Levi’s large and ready cock.

Levi covers Eren with his body.

“What a good wife I have.”

Eren bestows Levi that smile he doesn’t often see once more and this night vanishes to their tomorrow.

\--

That tomorrow.

There are many.

To a world not as cruel, but even so, very beautiful.

The Survey Corps after struggling, fighting, surviving oft by the skin of their teeth and the luck of the draw, manage to obtain victory- and the titans are eradicated from this earth.

With the titans gone, the walls come down, and a bountiful land is had. A green land vast and yielding. Crops and acres for what will be ages come, long gone and even the ones after. Deeper woods, high mountains dusted in snow, and fields of sand. A lake vaster than even the sky. A free sky that hangs above them.

The sea.

Because there are no longer titans, humanity can live freely and in peace.

A young girl is visiting the house of two of the members of the Survey Corps who were crucial during a time before she’d been born into making this dream a reality.

Corporal Levi Ackerman.

And Eren Yeager.

While it is no longer custom to burn the bodies of the dead given there is enough land to return them to the earth. It’s said the Corporal and Eren Yeager were cremated together. Corporal Levi passed first, and Eren soon followed him. Be that as it was, together so long in life after victory day, they joined each other in death. Their ashes were scattered together over the sea they’d build their permanent residence near.

Least that is what her mother tells her; she might not understand everything at this age but what she does understand is if these two people had not existed, the fruit stall her mother’s grandmamma had run would have never made it into a shop of its current caliber. They used to grow the fruits in a small orchard in the back yard of their home and the front, but now it took hours to pass all the fields they have. Where the fruit grows.

Her mother points to the shared headstone, wings uncrossed but flying upon them are engraved. The little girl places her offering among many others. A set of pears. She’s not the only one to give an offering. Flowers and gold, wheat and fruit. Many who have gained fortune place a token of thanks here at this grave.

The grave for Corporal Levi and Eren Yeager is located in the flower garden of their home by the sea. Open to the public. Records and its care maintained by Eren’s surviving friends and their families. An Armin Arlert is a common name heard, well known for his record of the events that led to humanity’s success. It is a record well read and loved, endorsed by the Queen.

As for this house, a public monument, a museum of sorts… it’d not started out like that. Merely, a relative- Mikasa Ackerman had wanted to remember her friends for her remaining years alive. In sound health even at her age. Looked after the care of the house. She made sure it was tidy and neat, and all the offerings in order, and what need repaired be repaired. Keeping it as much as she could, what it’d been like when she’d visited Eren and Levi in their home they’d built and fought for.

Amazing work she did all praised her, though some called her a ghost for how unlikely it was to encounter her for all her efforts to the house.

The young girl’s mother has clasped her hands in prayer before the gravestone. Though the gods and goddesses of another time hold little power over this society where the walls have long been brought down. Humans will be responsible for their own fate in this era.

The door back into the house is ajar so the young girl hurries through it, past the rows of blooming colourful flowers. She’s careful to wipe her feet on the mat before going back in. As is a rule of the house.

She’d intended to wait by the door… for her mother…

But she remembers back at the entrance there’d been a row of photos she’d been curious about. She goes over to them. Looking at the smiling face of Eren Yeager. Excited, untamed, and exultant as he explores the untouched new world soon to be humanity’s. He stands before a mountain in one, looks over the fields before they are full of wheat in another, the sands where no harvest grew, the deep woods, the sparkling sea. In almost all the pictures Corporal Levi is with him, an alert and stern expression. Many times frowning. Still ready for battle. Tense. While Eren looks oft at what is before him or at the camera as if to say ‘look, look!’ with him… Corporal Levi is always looking around Eren as if he’s unsure danger is no longer to be had. The young girl thinks if she had to meet one of these heroes she’d prefer to meet Eren who appears friendlier and not scary like Corporal Levi… she saves this idea for later in case she has to write a school assignment about this. What she did on her summer break and such…

As she walks down past all the pictures, nearing the end of the drawers the photos are atop of- she almost bumps into the woman standing there. A red scarf wrapped around her neck. A pink cardigan that she’d looked good in with dark hair and looks good in now even though all that hair is grey. Grown long, since all the titans are gone. It won’t be caught in the 3D maneuver gear, would it?

Mikasa looks down on the tiny body that’d collided with hers.

The young girl looks up at her with wide eyes, disbelieving… she was definitely going to write about this in her school assignment! She must be one of the only people who’d seen Mikasa Ackerman… in person!

The girl’s eyes flicker over to the framed photo Mikasa Ackerman has in hand.

The reason Mikasa is standing here is because she’s adding it to the public collection.

Mikasa speaks aloud with an audience.

“I wasn’t sure if I should put it out but I think it’d make Eren happy after all.”

Mikasa then crouches down, turning the frame over so the young girl can see-

It’s Levi and Eren’s wedding picture.

\--

Eren is retying his cravat for him.

Making sure it’s as tidy as he likes.

That camera Hanji had found… she’d found an even better one recently! Just in time too, for their wedding day! Wasn’t she great? 

Levi had promised Eren that they’d take a photo together, given Levi had not been the most photogenic. He just didn’t like it. The flash and the intrusion and the unknowing. What the picture will turn out to look like in the end. But he’d promised Eren without fail they would have one together.

And Corporal Levi is a man who keeps his promises.

Sworn before kin, friends and comrades alike they had vowed a new vow, with all the titans eradicated from this earth.

To see the very ends of this new world with one another, and to live as they’d always wanted.

Levi is wearing the usual sort of suit he likes to wear, though Eren’s embroidery is done within it., His prayers, his wishes, his hopes- Levi runs his fingers over the threads liking the way it feels beneath his calloused fingertips. Levi had had a top hat on before but it’d looked ridiculous so he refuses to wear it for the photo. He’d only wore it to begin with since Eren had explained it’d been his father’s, worn on his parent’s wedding night like the veil Eren dons. That of his mother’s. Lined in gold like the white suit he wears, the patterns similar to that of his mother’s wedding dress. Eren had worked on their outfits tirelessly as he does work to all things that matter to him- but Eren would have looked radiant in anything Levi is sure without a doubt (and in nothing, Eren bats his arm for this comment, asking if Corporal Levi has always been this chatty or is it because they’re getting married?)

They step out together, before their guests, waiting on Hanji to take their picture.

Levi touches at the embroidery in his lapel again. A bouquet of roses and sunflowers Eren holds. His golden locket matching to the gold embroidery of his veil; befitting is the white wing to the rest of the outfit. Just as the black wing on Levi’s locket is to his plain black suit. 

Levi holds out a hand for Eren to take and Eren reaches for him.

Grasps.

Holding hands, they wait.

Levi looks over to Eren and Eren looks over to him. Eren smiles at him warmly, joyously, a smile just for Levi.

A smile that cannot be undone as Eren turns to face the camera since Hanji says she’s ready, a thumbs up is their signal.

But even as Eren looks away from him, Levi cannot look away from Eren.

And as Hanji takes their picture Levi is still looking at Eren.

Bright light enshrouds them-

Seeing how happy Eren is.

Levi is finally happy too.

As briefly as the click of the shutter.

Levi smiles in turn.

It’s only in the pictures that Levi is looking at Eren that he smiles. 

Mikasa isn’t the only one to scold Levi at the wedding for making Eren cry. Eren on the verge of tears already from the event, but on seeing his husband’s smile finally… it’d overflowed. His happiness, his gratefulness, his tenderness. He’d jumped into Levi’s arms and Levi had held Eren tightly to him, never willing to let Eren go. Not minding Hanji taking pictures at all even though he'd said just the one, not when Eren is here with him.

Together, they have a conviction that will lead them to the future they’d dreamt about long before they’d met.

There’s albums of such photos, where should you catch Levi smiling it’s because he is looking at Eren.

None of these photos Mikasa has displayed before because she knows.

Just like how Eren’s smile is Corporal Levi’s treasure-

To Eren… Levi’s smile is just the same.

She knows Eren had thought of it and was troubled by it.

And it is true.

If not for Eren.

Corporal Levi doesn’t often smile.


End file.
